The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Saturday, May 9
Austin, Texas
6:30 p.m.
University of Texas
vs
Baylor
Softball preview: vs. No. 16/14 Baylor [May 9-10, 2015]
05.08.2015 | Softball
Texas closes out its regular-season schedule with final two series games against the Bears
Texas Game Notes - vs. No. 16/14 Baylor
No. 16/14 Baylor (38-13, 12-4 Big 12) at No. RV/RV Texas (35-15, 10-6 Big 12) | May 9-10 | McCombs Field | Austin, Texas
Schedule:
Sat., May 9 – No. 16/14 Baylor at #RV/RV Texas – 6:30 p.m. CT – Austin, Texas – LHN - "SENIOR DAY for Marlee Gabaldon & Gabby Smith"
Sun., May 10 – No. 16/14 Baylor at #RV/RV Texas – 1 p.m. CT – Austin, Texas – LHN
Live Stats: LINK for both games
Television: Both contests are slated for live broadcast on Longhorn Network with Alex Loeb (play-by-play) and Megan Willis (analyst) on the call. WATCH ESPN ONLINE: SATURDAY | SUNDAY
Radio: Texas radio will be available with Terry Lewis on the call through TexasSports.com (also works on smartphones/can listen on 90.9 FM inside of McCombs Field). LINK for both games
**PRIOR TO SATURDAY'S GAME (approximately 6:20 p.m. CT), TEXAS SENIORS MARLEE GABALDON AND GABBY SMITH WILL BE HONORED IN "SENIOR DAY" FESTIVITIES. The original plan to hold the ceremony on Sunday was changed because of an inclement weather threat.
Base Knocks:
- Texas and Baylor have met on 40 previous occasions with the Longhorns owning a 26-14 all-time series lead over the Bears. UT is 13-5 against BU in Austin and has won the last four meetings between the two teams at McCombs Field. The Burnt Orange & White have won seven of the last nine overall meetings in the series dating back to May 1, 2012. With Baylor entering this weekend at 12-4 and Texas at 10-6, UT would need to win both remaining games against the Bears to tie BU for second in the final Big 12 standings.
- Texas has registered walk-off wins over Baylor during each of the last two seasons on "Senior Day" in Austin. UT won 2-1 (9 inn.) on a Kim Bruins walk-off single back on May 12, 2013, and 3-2 on a Taylor Thom walk-off double on May 11, 2014. This season's "Senior Day" for Gabby Smith and Marlee Gabaldon is slated for Sun., May 10.
- Junior second baseman Stephanie Ceo was named the Big 12 Player of the Week for the first time in her career on May 5 for her efforts in UT's sweep of Oklahoma State. The Meadow Vista, Calif., native batted .500 (4-for-8) overall with two HR's, including her first career grand slam, and a team-best six RBIs.
- The 2015 Texas offense has entered the program single-season top five in several major categories: HR's (51-fifth), on-base percentage (.393-tied for fifth) and slugging percentage (.479-fifth). The Longhorns need just seven more RBI and 30 more runs to also enter the single-season top five in those team categories.
- The Longhorns have always had a tremendous amount of success against programs from the "Lone Star State," as UT holds a 297-72-1 (.809) overall record versus a combined 19 Texas teams and is 10-4 against such squads in 2015. The Burnt Orange & White leads the all-time series over 18 of those 19 programs with the lone blemish being a 20-20 series tie against longtime rival Texas A&M. The Horns faced off against Lamar and Texas Southern during the Texas Invitational, UTSA on March 24, Houston on April 1, Texas State on April 3-4, Texas A&M-CC on April 7, UT Arlington on April 15, Texas Tech over April 24-26 and Baylor on May 6.
- Since managing the first of her program-record stretch of five straight games with a HR back on March 28 at No. 22 Kansas, junior center fielder Lindsey Stephens has been en fuego at the plate. Over the last 20 games, Stephens is batting .391 (25-for-64) with 18 runs scored, three triples, EIGHT HR's and a team-best 20 RBI while slugging at a .875 clip. With 15 HR's in 2015, tied for the third-most in any season in Longhorns history, Stephens is now just three HR's from tying Taylor Hoagland's school mark of 18 set back during the 2012 campaign.
- It's proven to be a remarkable year for the Longhorns' offense with two outs in an inning as UT has registered 40 percent (108 of its 272 total RBI) of its total RBI output with two retired in a frame. The trend continued last weekend as Texas managed 11 of its 26 total RBI during its series at Oklahoma State with two outs.
- UT hasn't shied away from playing some of the best teams in the nation in 2015 and has had decent success in those contests. Texas now owns a 6-7 mark against ranked squads this year with victories over No. 16 Arizona State, No. 8/7 Georgia, No. 12 UCLA and No. 22 Kansas (three wins). That tough schedule has helped lead to a No. 28 ranking in the most recent release of the NCAA's Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) on May 4, a tool used to select and seed teams for the NCAA Tournament Field of 64. UT reached a season-high of No. 20 in the April 6 RPI release. Texas can boast of seven wins over top 35-rated RPI squads, UCLA (seven), Georgia (14), Kansas (24-three wins), Arizona State (25) and Northwestern (35).
- Sophomore shortstop Devon Tunning has been prolific this year as Texas' lead-off hitter, reaching a remarkable 58.7 percent of the time when starting an inning (44-of-75 times). She's also reached successfully in Texas' very first at-bat of a game ON 31 OCCASIONS and reached base safely in 44 of 50 total games this season. Recently, she's become a power threat at the dish as the Montgomery, Texas, native registered a pair of two-HR performances at Texas State and vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Tunning is one of only two Longhorns players to have recorded a multi-HR effort this season (Randel Leahy is the other) and now owns a career-high six HR's in 2015.
- If you look at this year's statistics, it's pretty obvious that Texas loves to jump on teams right from the start. UT enters ithis weekend against Baylor having scored in the first inning in 14 of its last 22 contests. The Longhorns have scored 70 runs during the first inning (24 percent of its total runs), the most of any single frame, and 152 of its total tallies (52 percent) over the opening three innings. UT is 23-2 in games where it scores at least once in the first inning and 28-4 when it scores first overall.
- The Longhorns seem comfortable playing away from the friendly confines of McCombs Field, boasting a 13-4 mark in true away games in 2015 (best road record after 17 road games in program history). Texas has out-hit the opposition as a team during road contests by a remarkable .341 to .249 total, and won NINE in a row from March 14-April 24, tying for the third-longest road winning streak in program history. With 13 road victories, this Texas team became the first in program history to win more than 11 road games in any season. The 2014, 2011, 2009 and 2005 teams all won 11 contests.
Players Mentioned
INF
/ Softball
OF
/ Softball
C/UTIL
/ Softball
P/UTIL
/ Softball
OF
/ Softball
SS
/ Softball
SS/3B
/ Softball