No. 9/13 Softball upended by No. 10/12 Virginia Tech’s late rally

Friday, February 24

Austin, Texas

4 p.m.

University of Texas

8-2-1

Virginia Tech

9-3

Virginia Tech

Texas

Photo by: Texas Athletics

No. 9/13 Softball upended by No. 10/12 Virginia Tech’s late rally

02.24.2023 | Softball

Box Score

Virginia Tech scores four runs in seventh, eighth innings to upend Texas to begin Lone Star State

By: Chris Allen Brown

AUSTIN, TX – Texas softball head coach Mike White walked off Red & Charline McCombs Field following the Longhorns' 6-5 loss to No. 10/12 Virginia Tech with aspirations of his team taking Friday night's lessons and applying them down the stretch.

Texas came out against the Hokies with an early two-run lead following a first-inning home run off the bat of Alyssa Washington. After Virginia Tech tied the game with a two-run homer in the top of the third, the Longhorns responded with a three spot in the bottom of the third with two coming on a two-run home run from Courtney Day.

With the three-run lead, Longhorn starting pitcher Estelle Czech went on to toss three consecutive scoreless innings.

However, back-to-back home runs from the Hokies tied the game in the top of the seventh, before Virginia Tech took the lead in the top of the eighth on a run-scoring single on the second pitch of the inning.

FROM HEAD COACH MIKE WHITE

"I thought we came out on fire. We came out and stuck to our gameplan as we did a really good job of hitting the ball and putting some runs up on the board. Unfortunately, we weren't able to hang onto it after having a three-run lead. We just have to go back and look at the tape and figure out what happened there. We made some mistakes – pitching wise – which is a shame because Estelle (Czech) pitched a really well game and deserved a win. Hopefully, tonight was a learning experience for down the road."

GAME NOTES

Friday afternoon's game against No. 10/12 Virginia Tech marked the first time in her Texas softball career that Leighann Goode did not record a hit in the game, breaking a streak of 10 consecutive games.
- Goode entered the Longhorns' game versus Hokies having been credited with 19 hits in 33 plate appearances.
As a result of her one-out bunt single in the bottom of the first, Mia Scott extended her team-leading on-base streak to 11 consecutive games this season.
For the first time on the young season, the Texas offense hit multiple home runs in the same game after Alyssa Washington hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the first followed by a two-run home run off the bat of Courtney Day in the bottom of the third.
- Washington's two-run home run Friday night was the 10th home run of her career.
For the second consecutive start, Estelle Czech struck out five opposing batters.
- Czech has struck out 17 batters over her last 16.2 innings of work dating back to last Friday night's five-inning start against Loyola.
Mia Scott registered her seventh multi-hit game on the season following a two-hit performance at the dish Friday night.
- Scott, in her last seven official at bats, have been credited with five hits, which include two doubles and a home run. She's also drove in five runs and scored two runs over her last two games.
Citlaly Gutierrez finished her 1.1 innings of work against Virginia Tech on Friday with her fourth outing of allowing zero earned runs this season.
- Over her last five pitching appearances, which total 11.2 innings, Gutierrez has allowed only one earned run.

UP NEXT

Texas (8-2-1) will return to action on Saturday, Feb. 25, when the Longhorns play No. 10/12 Virginia Tech, again, at 4 PM CT, before playing Abilene Christian (3-9) at 6:30 PM.

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