All-around effort carries Softball to wins over UL-Monroe and Southern Miss

Friday, February 28

Austin, Texas

4:00 PM

University of Texas

9-9

Louisiana - Monroe

13-5

UL-Monroe

Texas

All-around effort carries Softball to wins over UL-Monroe and Southern Miss

02.28.2014 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Wong and Stephens carry offense; Smith and Davis toss complete games

Box Scores (PDF): UL Monroe | Southern Miss. | Photo Gallery | Twitter

AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas Softball (10-9, 0-0) opened the Texas Invitational on Friday with two wins by defeating the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks, 6-2, and the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, 10-2, in five innings.

Strong pitching from junior Gabby Smith and freshman Tiarra Davis propelled the Longhorns to the two wins. The pitchers each threw their fourth complete games of the season, while striking out seven a piece. Smith improved to 6-1 on the year, while Davis collected her first complete game victory in a near no-hit gem, as she allowed just one hit over five innings. The win for the freshman lefty runs her record to 2-5 on the season.

The Longhorns offense exploded for 16 runs on 25 hits on the day, tying its season high with 15 against Southern Miss.

The offense on the day was paced by freshman Stephanie Wong who went 5-for-6 with two runs scored and two RBIs. All-American senior Taylor Thom scored three runs on the day and picked up her 200th career hit, while moving into a second place tie on the Texas all-time RBIs list with her 149^th. Fellow classmate Brejae Washington had three hits, three runs, and two stolen bases. Hits in each game extended her hitting streak to 10 games, tying her career longest streak. Sophomore Lindsey Stephens had five hits on the day, including a 4-for-4 outing at the plate against Southern Miss. Stephens also extended her career-long hitting streak to 10-straight games.

In the first game of the night against Louisiana-Monroe (13-5, 0-0), Texas' offense was led by Wong, Washington, and Thom. The three players collected six of Texas 10 hits on the game. Wong went 3-for-3 with two RBIs and a stolen base. Thom went 2-for-4 with a double and a pair of runs scored.

Smith had a strong game from the circle picking up the win to run her record to 6-1 on the season. Smith threw her fourth complete game behind seven strikeouts, allowing five hits and two earned runs.

Texas loaded the bases in the first three innings. Wong came to the plate in the first and second innings with the bases jammed and delivered both times. In the first inning she hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Thom to take the 1-0 lead. She followed in the second inning by scorching a pitch to left field to plate Washington in for the 4-0 lead.

ULM scored two runs to bring it within three at 5-2 in the top of the third, but Texas was able to get it back in the fifth behind two of their seniors. After Thom doubled to left, Washington reached on a bunt single, allowing Thom to score after some nifty base running.

Louisiana-Monroe loaded the bases in both the final two innings, but Smith was able to stifle the rallies.

In the backend of the twin-bill, Davis hit a batter in the first inning, but went on to retire the next 10 Golden Eagles until the leadoff hitter reached on an error in the fifth inning. On the night, Davis only allowed one hit, allowed no earned runs, no walks and struck out seven.

Stephen's 4-for-4 outing and sophomore Erin Shireman's 2-for-2 performance stood out in the Horns' second win of the day.

Southern Miss (5-11, 0-0) pitching hadn't allowed a run in 18 innings until the Texas offense broke through against the Golden Eagles in the second inning for three runs. Wong stayed hot and picked up her fourth hit of the day. After Wong stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error, Shireman singled up the middle for her sixth RBI of the season. Sophomore Stephanie Ceo doubled to center field to score Shireman from first for the 2-0 lead. Thom drove in the third run with her 200th career hit.

The Texas bats continued to stay hot in the third. Stephens started the rally with a solid base hit up the middle. Three-straight bunt singles followed to plate Stephens for a 5-0 lead, while continuing the bases loaded rally with no out. Shireman had her second RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly to right to score Wong.

Facing the run-rule, Southern Miss finally broke through against Davis with their first hit of the game. Three Texas errors, one hit and one hit-by-pitch combined to score two runs for the Golden Eagles and extend the game with Texas leading 8-2.

Texas answered right back with Shireman's second hit of the day. The single was followed by Ceo's second double of the day to bring in the Horns ninth run of the day. Texas forced the run-rule when Stephens capped her perfect 4-for-4 night with an RBI single down the right field line to score Thom for the 10-2 victory.

Day two of the Texas Invitational continues tomorrow when Texas takes on Texas Southern at 1:00 p.m. CT and Louisiana-Monroe at 6:30 p.m. CT at Red & Charlene McCombs Field. Both games will be televised nationally on Longhorn Network.

POSTGAME NOTES

Against Southern Mississippi, Taylor Thom collected her 200^th hit of her Texas career and moved into a tie for second place on UT's all-time RBIs list with her 149th (tied with Taylor Hoagland).
Senior Brejae Washington and sophomore Lindsey Stephens extended their hitting streaks to 10-straight games. Stephens had five hits on the day, including a perfect 4-for-4 game against USM.
Freshman Stephanie Wong pounded out five hits on the day, including a perfect 4-for-4 night against ULM.
Wong, Stephens and Washington all went 2-for-2 in stolen base opportunities.
The run-rule win over Southern Miss marks the second time this season UT has won on the run rule this season.
Texas's 15 hits against Southern Miss tied a season high in the category.
The Longhorns are now 9-0 when scoring six or more runs in a game this season.
Junior Gabby Smith and freshman Tiarra Davis each picked up their fourth complete game of the season.

QUOTES

Head Coach Connie Clark

On practice this week: "It was nice to have three days of practice this week. We've been playing so much that we haven't been able to get quality practice in. We really focused on hitting with runners on base. When somebody came up to the plate, we would load the bases or there were runners at second and third just to simulate getting runs across and we did a great job with that tonight."

On the running game: "We really went to the short game tonight. A lot of bunts went down tonight and that really freed things up for us. We had a lot of different contributors. Stephanie Wong was tremendous in game one and Lindsey Stephens was tremendous in game two. They had a lot of support around them and this was just a tribute to the hard work they're putting in practice."

On tonight's pitching performances: "Gabby [Smith] and Tiarra [Davis] were really pounding the mitt, throwing a lot of strikes and getting great movement. They're able to off-set each other with the righty and the lefty, mixing speeds effectively and just doing the things we need them to do to keep us in games. They've emerged and I love what we're getting from them right now."