Softball rolls past Louisiana Tech in its Texas Invitational finale, 9-2

Saturday, February 18

Austin, Texas

3:30 p.m.

University of Texas

7-3

Louisiana Tech

6-3

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Louisiana Tech	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	2	7	0
Texas	1	0	1	1	2	4	X	9	13	0

Softball rolls past Louisiana Tech in its Texas Invitational finale, 9-2

02.18.2017 | Softball

Box Score

Freshman second baseman Jade Gortarez led the Horns by going 3-for-3 with a career-high five RBIs

AUSTIN, Texas – Freshman second baseman Jade Gortarez went a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate with a double and a career-high five RBI to help power Texas softball (7-3) to a commanding, 9-2 victory over Louisiana Tech (6-3) on Saturday afternoon in Texas Invitational action at Red & Charline McCombs Field.

Over the five-game Texas Invitational, the Longhorns batted .318 as a team, drew 32 walks, scored 34 runs, managed 16 extra-base hits, including four triples, swiped seven bases and registered a .965 OPS while going 4-1 overall.

In all during Saturday's victory over the Lady Techsters, eight of UT's 13 total hits and seven of the nine total RBIs were registered by Texas freshmen.

"The one thing I thought we needed today was grit," Texas head coach Connie Clark said. "I just thought that our captains did a good job of getting our team together to talk about a few things. I thought our team made great adjustments, and I thought we were ready to go today. It was a gritty day."

In the circle for the Horns, redshirt sophomore Erica Wright (1-1) picked up her first victory since 2015 by allowing one run on four hits with three walks and five strikeouts over 4.1 innings of relief work.

Also for the Burnt Orange & White at the dish, senior first baseman Kelli Hanzel was 1-for-2 with her first HR of the season, freshman right fielder Tuesday DerMargosian was a perfect 3-for-3 with her initial career RBI, rookie catcher Taylor Ellsworth was 1-for-3 with a walk and a RBI and sophomore center fielder Reagan Hathaway was 1-for-2 with two runs scored, a walk and a RBI.

The Longhorns offense picked up right where it left off from the end of Saturday's win over Indiana during the first frame against Louisiana Tech. Senor left fielder Stephanie Wong got a run-scoring opportunity going by singling to start the contest and advanced within 60 feet of pay dirt on a long foul out and a wild pitch. Hathaway stepped into the box and lifted a sacrifice fly to deep left to plate Wong for a quick 1-0 lead.

The first threat for the Lady Techsters came to open the third as left fielder Ali Galaz, second baseman Berkely Calapp and third baseman Jessica Ball laced consecutive singles to right. On the second of the base hits, Galaz got held up between the bags and was cut down on a strong throw to second by DerMargosian for an important initial out. A Tori Charters walk loaded the bases with two retired setting the stage for a bases-loaded free pass to first baseman Pauline Tufi that forced in the tying run. The decision was made to go to the bullpen to bring in Wright in relief of senior starter Tiarra Davis, and it paid off immediately as the right-hander caught designated player Taria Page looking at strike three as Louisiana Tech left the bases loaded.

With two outs in the bottom of the third, Texas strung together three hits of its own to grab back the lead, 2-1. Hathaway started the outburst off with a single to right and quickly moved into scoring position on a Krpec drive just inside the third base bag and down the line. Gortarez followed soon after with her first collegiate RBI on a single back up the middle as Hathaway raced home easily from second.

Hanzel boosted the Longhorns advantage to 3-1 during the bottom half of the fourth by blasting a 1-0 offering from starter Preslee Gallaway just inside the left field fair pole.

Meanwhile, Louisiana Tech managed to get a pair of base runners on in both the fourth and fifth innings, but Wright worked her way out of trouble from the circle each time with key strikeouts of Calapp and Page.

Gortarez was back at it at the plate during the bottom of the fifth as her two-RBI double into the left center gap scored Tunning and Krpec to expand Texas' advantage to 5-1.

Looking to answer with time running short in the top of the sixth, Galaz drove a one-out triple to the wall in right center to provide La. Tech a needed base occupant. Wright coerced a pop-up to short for the second out, but Ball followed with her own three-bagger to plate Galaz and cut the Texas lead to three runs.

The career day for Gortarez got even better in the sixth as the Riverside, Calif, native drove a two-run single through the left side to boost her total to five RBIs. Ellsworth and DerMargosian followed with run-scoring base hits of their own to make it 9-2.

Needing only three outs to finish off another win, the Longhorns got the first one of the seventh on a terrific diving catch by Wong in left. From there, Wright finished things off with a strikeout looking and a fly out to left.