The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Sam Houston State
Kim Bruins fires no-hitter for No. 6 Softball in 14-0 victory
03.04.2012 | Softball
March 4, 2012
AUSTIN, Texas - Junior right-hander Kim Bruins (Redlands, Calif./Redlands HS) fired her second career no-hitter Sunday as the No. 6 Texas Longhorns completed a three-game series sweep with the 14-0 win in five innings against the Sam Houston Stake Bearkats. Bruins walked one and struck out a career-high nine batters on the same day (March 4) as she threw her first no-hitter exactly two years ago (March 4, 2010) against Texas Southern.
Senior second baseman Lexy Bennett went 3-for-3 with a double, home run and a career-tying five RBI while Taylor Hoagland was 3-for-3 with a double and one RBI. Courtney Craig was 3-for-4 with a double and two RBI while Mandy Ogle and Karina Scott hit back-to-back homers for the Longhorns (17-1).
Bennett now has 129 career RBI and needs only 10 to tie Loryn Johnson (2007-2010) for the Texas school record.
Hoagland opened the bottom half of the first with a double, followed by Brejae Washington's bunt single to put runners at the corners. Bennett then hit a two-run single up the middle and later scored on a throwing error by Alyssa Coggins for the 3-0 lead.
The Longhorns made it a 6-0 advantage with three in the second when Craig and Taylor Thom hit back-to-back doubles. Texas recorded all three of its home runs as part of a six-run third inning as the Longhorns sent 10 batters to the plate. After scoring two runs in the fourth, Bruins allowed a walk to Kyanna Richardson to start the Sam Houston State fifth before striking out the side to secure the no-hitter.
Texas concludes its seven-game homestand with two non-conference games against Texas Tech on Tuesday (March 6) and Wednesday (March 7). Tuesday's game starts at 8 p.m. with a 4 p.m. start on Wednesday. Both games will feature a live television broadcast on Longhorn Network with a live audio webcast on TexasSports.com.
Notes: Texas has out-scored their opponents by a 24-1 margin in the first inning this season and a 54-3 margin in the first two innings...Texas is 15-0 this season when scoring in the first inning...the Longhorns' three home runs today tied a season high (Feb. 9 against Cal State Fullerton)...during this current homestand (five games), Texas is batting .415 as a team with a 0.42 staff ERA...Lexy Bennett's five RBI in a game matched her previous best, set against Oklahoma State (April 24, 2010)...Bennett registered two or more RBI in a game for the 10th time this season...Bennett is now in third place on the Texas career list for runs scored (133) and needs one to tie Lindsay Gardner (2000-03) for second place...Taylor Hoagland, Brejae Washington and Courtney Craig extended their season-high hitting streaks to five games each...Hoagland has reached base safely in eight straight games...during the current homestand, Hoagland is batting .556 (10-for-18) with six stolen bases...Craig recorded nine RBI in the three-game series against Sam Houston State...Taylor Thom leads the Longhorns with five doubles this season.
SHSU 000-00---0-0-1 TEXAS 336-2x---14-17-1WP - Bruins (3-1) LP - Quinn (0-2) Records: Texas (17-1), Sam Houston State (1-13)
Quinn, Castillo (2), Schoenemann (3), Baros (3) and Isbell. Bruins and Ogle.
Post-Game Quotes
Head Coach Connie Clark
On overall play this season at the plate: They have applied things they have learned early in the season and that is what I am most excited about. Some of the pitching we saw this weekend came off of a practice day where we were working on some of the things we saw so that worked out really nice. It doesn't always work out that way...just applying the things they learned earlier, becoming more patient, splitting the plate in half and looking for specific pitches. The offense has been amazing.
On Kim Bruins' performance today: Kim has had nagging injuries during her first two years at Texas and, knock on wood, she can stay healthy because when she is healthy she can do a lot of things for us. She is swinging the bat well, playing first base and obviously I appreciate what she brings to us in a circle. She just competes so well. You give her the ball and she just wants to go out and battle. She is getting more and more confident with every great outing. It was nice to see her put up a no-hitter today and I was really proud of her.
On the 3-game format: I love it. I told the team yesterday that, to me, we get to play chess a little bit so to speak. You get to see what their moves are going to be and then you come up with counter-moves. Then some things we thought we could do yesterday, we tested right away and then we saw that they had the coverage that they didn't have Friday. So it is fun to play chess and I think it is nice to play a non-conference series so that it can be a dress rehearsal piece for when we play conference.
Senior outfielder Courtney Craig
On offense this weekend: As a team we have been really working hard individual games. Personally, I have been working hard on getting my hands inside and I think I just saw the ball great today and made the contact.
On playing in outfield: I love (playing in the) outfield. I have been working hard out there and always bouncing back in forth. In practice I do the same thing, so I just like to be versatile for the coaches.
Junior pitcher Kim Bruins
On setting personal best with nine strikeouts in a game: it feels pretty good. Although I am not really counting strikeouts, I am just hitting my spots and they just came today.
On what you have been working on in practice: I have been working on getting ahead in counts even though I really didn't get ahead today. Really just hitting my spots kind of fell through with me today but that is my plan.
On playing more this season: I am actually healthy this year. I am able to do the things I am doing and do it well. I just have been working really hard and I think it has shown in games and practice.
