The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Missouri
No. 11 Missouri shuts out No. 3 Softball, 2-0, to win series
04.07.2012 | Softball
April 7, 2012
AUSTIN, Texas - Chelsea Thomas threw a five-hit shutout Saturday as the No. 11 Missouri Tigers earned a Big 12 series win over the No. 3 Texas Longhorns, 2-0, at Red & Charline McCombs Field. Thomas, who threw 19 innings in the three-game series, struck out nine and walked just two.
Lindsey Muller singled off Kim Bruins (6-2) to lead off the second. Corrin Genovese reached on the fielder's choice, advanced to second on Mackenzie Sykes' ground out and scored on Kelsea Roth's two-strike single up the middle. With a 1-2 count in the third, Ashley Fleming hit her eighth homer on the season with a solo shot to right to cap the scoring.
Torie Schmidt finished the series with a 7-for-10 (.700) performance at the plate for Texas (32-4, 6-2), who was shut out for the first time this season. Thomas kept the Longhorns off-balance all day with the big inning coming in the second. Texas had runners at second and third with no outs, but Thomas struck out Taylor Thom and Brejae Washington to keep the Longhorns scoreless. UT would get runners on base in the seventh, but Thomas would close off the shutout by striking out Washington.
Texas continues Big 12 play with four road games this week, beginning on Wednesday (April 11) with a 6 p.m. game at Texas Tech. The Longhorns then travel to Kansas for a Friday-Sunday (April 13-15) series. Friday's game in Lawrence starts at 5 p.m. with a 2 p.m. start on Saturday and noon start on Sunday. Gametracker live stats, along with a live Twitter feed (@TexasSoftball), for all four games will be available on TexasSports.com.
Notes: The Longhorns suffered back-to-back losses for the first time this season and the first time since dropping two straight losses in last year's NCAA Austin Regional...the Longhorns' five hits were the lowest total since recording three hits on March 13 at No. 18 Hawai'i.
MU 011-000-0---2-7-0 TEXAS 000-000-0---0-5-0WP - Thomas (16-4) LP - Bruins (6-3) Records: Missouri (30-6, 9-3), Texas (32-4, 6-2)
Thomas and Marston. Bruins, Luna (5) and Ogle.
Post-Game Quotes
Head coach Connie Clark
On Missouri starting pitcher Chelsea Thomas: You have to tip your cap, she was a little bit different each day. She appeared to have a specific game plan with each of our hitters. We just couldn't string anything together, we had a couple things here and there but we weren't able to string them together, unfortunately. On not being able to respond after Missouri struck first: We talked about it as a group, whether they feel like there was any type of let down or because they struck first. We haven't typically seen that with this ball club. They didn't necessarily feel that. I just think that they are frustrated because obviously they have high expectations of themselves as hitters. You just have to tip your cap and know that if we are going to face her later; what is our gameplan and knowing how you're going to make adjustments.
On the first series loss of the season and what she talked to the team about: Really just to keep their heads up. Certainly, I think we're a great ball club and it's going to come down to some great battles. I thought all three games were well played in regard to competitive spirit, which is what we've been talking about all year. We've just got to stay the course and if anything, we talked about that it helps motivate us. We've got to be able to put the ball in play, we had too much swinging and missing and we need to shorten it up and make contact to make them play defense.
On whether or not the team can take this series loss as a learning experience: Probably a humbling experience. I do think that they are able to take a step back and respect the game and respect the specific opponent that was in the circle. There are sometimes that you have to do that. We wanted the outcome, but we battled well and it does humble them [the team]. We've been on a roll and this was like a College World Series type of matchup right here. I think we just need to stay competitive and it does motivate you to come back and work hard at practice. So, I guess if we take the bright spot from this, that may be it.
On what this loss has taught her about the team and what she likes about them: I like that they want to keep learning and growing. It's a good spirit in the locker room right now. I like that they're down. To a certain extent, they expect to compete and win that series and they were ready to go today. Just a good lesson to stay on track and get back to work.
On the pitching decisions with Blaire Luna: I think one bright spot today was Blaire giving us what I've been asking her for the last two days and that's a competitive spirit, an edge, a little bit of an eye of the tiger. I know she burns internally, but externally we just have to see some fire from here and that competitive nature that I know she has. She was struggling with her confidence a little bit heading into the weekend. We had a good conversation this morning and I told her that she was coming in relief and she had a great outing. She had exactly what we were looking for and that's one thing we have to have down the stretch from her. Everybody's confidence is up and down and she was nails today and I told her that's what we always need from our ace. That's a great takeaway for us today but our ace needs to be getting the ball when she has that competitive spirit to go along with that nasty stuff and I think we saw that today.
Junior outfielder Torie Schmidt
On her good series despite the losses: I went up there with an aggressive mindset, going up, taking hacks at the first strikes I saw.
On the lack of offensive output: Yeah, we just have to hand it to Chelsea [Thomas], she did a good job of mixing up pitches today and we just didn't make the adjustments that we needed to make.
Senior outfielder Courtney Craig
On what was the difference against Missouri starter Chelsea Thomas between the first two games and today: She changed her approach every day. Seeing her one day doesn't really doesn't give you an advantage the next day. Each pitcher has their "on" pitch each day and it just happened to be something different than what we've seen before.
On whether or not they counteracted Chelsea Thomas' adjustments: When she came right at us, we went right at her. She had great movement on the changeup today so that was the difference maker.
On the first series loss of the season: It's bound to happen, that's what this game is about. We just have to bounce back, get right, stay together as a team and focus on our games this week.
On what they are doing to make sure they get through this midseason portion of the schedule: Just recovery, taking care of our bodies. Just doing what we need to do, little games, little improvements that we need that will improve our game for the week.
