No. 25/25 Softball closes out Mary Nutter Classic with 5-2 loss to California

Sunday, February 23

Palm Springs, Calif.

11:00 AM

University of Texas

8-9

California

7-6

California

Texas

No. 25/25 Softball closes out Mary Nutter Classic with 5-2 loss to California

02.23.2014 | Softball

Box Score

Longhorns rally from early deficit, but fall on two Cal homers.

Box Score (PDF) | Twitter

CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. – No. 25/25 Texas Softball closed out play at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic with a 5-2 loss to the California Bears on Sunday morning.

The Longhorns (8-9, 0-0) trailed 2-0 right out of the gate when Cal (7-6, 0-0) got a two-out RBI double from Jasmin Meija to drive in the two scores. UT evened the contest in its half of the opening inning on a single by Davis, which was dropped by the left fielder. Thom and Washington scored on the play to make it 2-2 at that point.

The Bears regained its two-run in the third inning on a mammoth two-run home run to left field by Jordan Walllace. Down 4-2 when it went to the plate in the bottom of the frame, UT got a leadoff single down the right field line by sophomore Lindsey Stephens, who went 2-fo-4 on the day.

She would eventually move into scoring position on a two-out single up the middle by freshman Stephanie Wong. With the tying run on base, senior Karina Scott hit a hard shot into center field, but was caught to end the inning for the Horns.

Cal would go on to boost its lead to a three-run advantage when it came back to the plate on Cheyenne Cordes' solo homer. The Bears looked to expand on its lead on a hard-hit ball by Danielle Henderson to deep right field, but Stephens reached back, fell into the wall and hauled it in for the final out of the inning.

Stephens made another outstanding play in right field in the fifth inning when she ran down a fly ball in the right field alleyway to end the inning and keep Meija from reaching on a potential extra base hit.

Freshman Tiarra Davis, who started the contest, departed after the fourth inning. California found a way to pound out all five run on five hits off of UT's lefthander. Coming off Saturday's one-hit, complete game shutout performance against Fresno State, junior Gabby Smith took the ball in the fifth and went on to throw the final three frames. She surrendered only one hit and a walk during her outing, while striking out one Cal batter.

Davis took the loss, dropping her to 1-5 this season, while Cal's Nisa Ontiveros picked up her fifth win.

With sophomore Holly Kern already on base, Smith singled, setting up an opportunity for the game-tying run to come to the plate in the fifth inning. Wong and Scott hit with two Longhorns aboard, but both grounded into fielder's choice, allowing the Bears to maintain their lead.

Texas (8-9, 0-0) will have off from action until Friday when it hosts the Texas Invitational. The Longhorns will open play in the weekend tournament with a pair of games against Louisiana –Monroe and Southern Mississippi on Friday beginning at 4:00 p.m. Both games will be televised nationally by Longhorn Network.

POSTGAME NOTES

Texas drops to 3-5 in the all-time series against California.
Sophomore Lindsey Stephens had two hits on Sunday, giving her six hits during the five games at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic. For the weekend she hit .353 and knocked in 11 RBIs.