The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
No. 13/13 Softball rallies for 6-5 win against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
02.15.2012 | Softball
Feb. 15, 2012
Box Score 
AUSTIN, Texas - Senior right fielder Courtney Craig hit a two-out RBI double in the bottom of the sixth inning to help the No. 13/13 University of Texas Softball team rally for a 6-5 victory against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday evening at Red and Charline McCombs Field. With the win, Texas improved to 6-0 on the year while the Islanders fell to 1-4.
Trailing 5-4 entering the sixth, UT pieced together a pair of runs to take the lead. With one out, Taylor Hoagland was hit-by-pitch and stole second. Hoagland advanced to third on a Brejae Washington groundout. Lexy Bennett then brought home Hoagland with the tying run on a sharply-hit infield single. After Bennett stole second, Craig delivered her RBI double to center to plate Bennett for the game-winning run.
Junior All-American pitcher Blaire Luna, who entered the game in relief in the sixth, allowed a pair of runners to reach base in the top of the seventh on a walk and a single. But with runners on first and second and two out, Luna struck out Sandy Schumann to seal the victory.
Luna (3-0) picked up the win for the Longhorns, working 2.0 innings and allowing just one hit while striking out four and walking one. Vianca Pesina (0-2) took the loss for the Islanders, tossing 6.0 innings and allowing six runs on nine hits while striking out one and walking four.
The Longhorns took an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Hoagland led off the inning with a walk, stole second and advanced to third on a sac bunt by Washington. Bennett laced an RBI single through the right side of the infield to bring home Hoagland for the game's first run. After Craig flied out, back-to-back singles by Nadia Taylor and Taylor Thom loaded the bases. Torie Schmidt hit a two-run double to center field to bring home Bennett and Taylor and give the Horns a 3-0 cushion.
The Islanders responded with two unearned runs in the second. Mickayla Heller and Schumann opened the frame with back-to-back singles. Heller was retired at third on a Hayley Galloway fielder's choice, and an Alejia Cain groundout advanced Schumann and Galloway to third and second, respectively. Hannah Schwarz reached on a two-base throwing error by third baseman Hoagland, bringing home both Schumann and Galloway to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Texas responded with a single run in the bottom of the second. Gabby Smith led off the inning with a single and stole second base. Hoagland laid down a sac bunt and reached on a throwing error by Pesina, allowing Smith to score from second.
In the fourth, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi pushed across three runs, all with two outs. With two outs and no runners on base, Cain started the rally with a bunt single and stole second. Schwarz reached on an infield single that moved Cain to third, before Stephanie Vead hit an RBI single back to the circle to score Cain and trim the margin to 4-3. Smith replaced UT starter Rachel Fox in the circle, and a wild pitch advanced Schwarz to third and Vead to second. Cassie Carroll hit an RBI single to plate Schwartz and even the score at 4-4. Lauren Phillips then hit an RBI infield single to score Vead and give the Islanders a 5-4 advantage.
Bennett, who was tabbed the Big 12 Player of the Week on Tuesday, went 2-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored, while Washington added two hits to pace the Texas offensive attack.
Texas returns to action when it hosts both Pittsburgh and No. 10/7 Tennessee on Friday, Feb. 17 as part of the Time Warner Cable Texas Invitational. First pitch for the Pittsburgh game is set for 2 p.m. Central, while the Tennessee contest is set for a 5 p.m. Central start. Both games will be played at McCombs Field, and all Texas games during the weekend tourney will be broadcast on Longhorn Network.
Post-Game Notes
- UT's streak of consecutive scoreless innings to start the season was stopped at 28.2 innings, when the Islanders pushed two unearned runs across with two outs in the top of the second.
- Texas went 5-for-5 as a team in stolen base attempts on the night. The Horns are now a perfect 16-for-16 in stolen base attempts on the year.
- With her two RBI today, Lexy Bennett pushed her career total to 111 (fifth in UT history).
- Taylor Hoagland went 2-for-2 in stolen base attempts on the night. She is now 4-for-4 on the year and has 45 career stolen bases (eighth in UT history).
- Blaire Luna struck out four of the eight batters she faced in her 2.0 innings of work. She has now struck out 30 of the 58 batters she has faced this season.
Texas Post-Game Quotes
Head Coach Connie Clark
On the difference in tonight's game, as opposed to last weekend: I am pleased that we got the bunt down tonight. That was something that we were trying to do all last weekend. However, the games did not give us those opportunities because we were pounding out so many runs, and tonight the score was close enough, that we got the opportunity to work that in. One take away from the game would be that it was a great opportunity to apply the bunts from practice. Outside of that, we were not as sharp as we needed to be. It will be good for us to go back to work and realize that we have to keep the energy going. We had some uncharacteristic errors tonight. We will look at the film. All we have been talking about is behavior and resetting, we will look at that and go back to work. However, the sac bunting was the take away tonight. It was key to have that, so I am pleased.
On what she is looking forward to this weekend: I am looking forward to the behaviors and making sure that we are coming out, staying pitch to pitch and bringing the energy. If the game calls for the bunt, we are able to put that down and if it calls for something else, then we are able to open it up a bit. We need to control the tempo as well. I think we did that very well last weekend, but today we did not do that as well; we seemed speeded up. We will have to control the tempo. A few of the teams coming in this weekend have a lot of team speed, specifically Tennessee, so that will be something we need to see as we head into the weekend.
On the players' ability to adapt to situations: We have people that we are rotating in and out of positions while trying to get our depth chart set, and at the same time, get a lot of people experience. It is good to see some people have to work through being uncomfortable. I think we did a pretty good job of that tonight, however I will know better when I watch film. We turned it around; we had some good team timeouts where we brought it together. That is what we are keying in on right now; if they can get to the next pitch. They had an opportunity to do that a lot of tonight because there were some challenges, but they did a nice job with that.
