No. 4 Softball preview: North Texas

No. 4 Texas (10-0) hosts North Texas (8-1) | Feb. 19 | Red & Charline McCombs Field, Austin, Texas

Schedule:

Wednesday, February 19

4:30pm North Texas at #4 TEXAS – LONGHORN NETWORK**

**The Longhorn Network broadcast will be tape-delayed to 9 p.m. CT because of Texas baseball and men's basketball

TEXAS CLEAR BAG POLICY: Please note that there is a Clear Bag Policy in effect for fans when attending Texas Athletic events. For more details, please visit this LINK

Location: Austin, Texas (Red & Charline McCombs Field)

Ticket Information: LINK

Live Stats: LINK

Television: The game versus North Texas will be shown by Longhorn Network on a tape-delayed basis at 9 p.m. CT following the conclusion of Texas baseball and men's basketball

Radio: Texas' game is slated for radio broadcast via web stream with Andrew Haynes on the call at this LINK. It can also be heard locally in Austin on 105.3 FM in the local and surrounding areas, part of the Austin Radio Network supported by the flagship radio station of the Longhorns, 104.9 FM The Horn.

Base Knocks:

Texas enters Wednesday's game against North Texas boasting NCAA DIVISION I'S TOP-RANKED OFFENSE and the No. 8-rated pitching staff by ERA (0.98). The Longhorns currently lead the nation in batting average (.432), scoring (tied at 10 runs-per-game), doubles (29), doubles-per-game (2.9), on-base (.507) and slugging (.700) percentage and WL percentage (tied at 1.000).
As of Tuesday afternoon, there were just five unbeaten teams left in all of NCAA Division I softball: UCLA (11-0), TEXAS (10-0), Michigan (9-0), Oregon (9-0) and SIUE (4-0). Only three athletic departments in the country currently have unbeaten softball & baseball teams: UCLA, TEXAS and SIUE.
So far in 2020, Texas has out-hit each of its first 10 opponents, is 7-0 when scoring first and 5-0 when scoring in the first inning, while its pitching staff HASN'T GIVEN UP A SINGLE HR in 57 innings of work.
Texas rose to No. 2 in the Softball America poll on Feb. 18, marking the highest the Longhorns have been in ANY POLL since rating No. 2 in the NFCA rankings back on May 10, 2006.
Senior pitcher/utility player Miranda Elish picked up a weekly league accolade for the second consecutive week on Tuesday by being named the Big 12 Conference Co-Pitcher of the Week for Feb. 18. During her MVP run at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge, Elish went 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA, including a one-hit shutout of No. 12 Tennessee.
Facing Utah (Feb. 14) at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge, redshirt senior outfielder Reagan Hathaway was a part of back-to-back HR's for the FOURTH TIME in her career. She teamed with senior shortstop Kaitlyn Slack on back-to-back solo jacks in the seventh inning against the Utes to help rally Texas from a 2-0 deficit to a 3-2 win.
Now in his 11th season as a head coach, Mike White is quickly closing in on another career milestone. He currently owns 491 career wins, needing just nine more to reach the 500-win plateau. With a .793 career winning percentage, White currently rates as the third-winningest active coach in NCAA Division I softball behind only Florida's Tim Walton (.796) and Arizona's Mike Candrea (.794).
Remarkably, 17 different Texas batters own at least one hit and 17 different Longhorns have registered at least one RBI this season.
The Longhorns have registered at least three runs in a frame 18 times over 10 games this season, have sent at least nine batters to the plate in an inning seven times and are averaging a remarkable 1.96 runs-per-at-bat.
Texas' 100 runs scored over its first 10 games are the most after 10 games in any season in program history. The previous high after the initial 10 contests was 95 runs by the 2012 Longhorns squad.
Junior second baseman Janae Jefferson is off to another hot start with the bat, currently rating first in the Big 12 in total hits (15 - 27th in NCAA Division I) and runs scored-per-game (1.40 - 13th in NCAA Division I).
Junior second baseman and two-time All-American Janae Jefferson currently ranks as the school's career leader in batting average at .408 (well ahead of Lexy Bennett at .385), while rating third all-time in on-base percentage (.458). The Humble, Texas, native is also closing in on the 200-hit mark with 169 total hits through her first two+ seasons in the Burnt Orange & White.
Senior pitcher/utility player Miranda Elish was named both the Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division I National Player of the Week and the Big 12 Conference Player of the Week (Feb. 11) after batting .818 with three doubles, four HR's, including a grand slam, and 17 RBIs during the Texas Classic.
Softball America listed four Longhorns in their 2020 Top 100 National Player Rankings: No. 30 Janae Jefferson, No. 32 Miranda Elish, No. 36 Shea O'Leary and No. 47 Mary Iakopo.
Texas remained at No. 6 in this week's USA Today/NFCA, ESPN.com/USA Softball & D1Softball polls and climbed five positions to No. 5 in the Softball America rankings.
Junior second baseman Janae Jefferson and junior catcher/third baseman Mary Iakopo were both selected as Softball America Preseason Second Team All-Americans prior to the 2020 campaign. Jefferson was also named a preseason All-American by the ESPN staff (Beth Mowins, Holly Rowe, Michele Smith, Amanda Scarborough, etc.) in charge of producing the 7InningsPodcast.
Texas was one of just six schools in NCAA Division I (UCLA, Texas, Alabama, Arizona, Oklahoma, Washington) to have at least three players on the USA Softball National Player of the Year Watch List: senior pitcher Miranda Elish (her third time on the watch list), junior catcher/third baseman Mary Iakopo and sophomore pitcher Shea O'Leary. As a sophomore at Oregon in 2018, Elish finished as a top 25 finalist for the honor after going 25-2 overall from the circle.

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Players Mentioned

Lexy Bennett

Miranda Elish

Reagan Hathaway

Mary Iakopo

Janae Jefferson

Kaitlyn Slack

The University of Texas at Austin Athletics