No. 9/8 Softball falls to No. 1 Oklahoma

Friday, March 31

Oklahoma City, Okla.

6 p.m.

University of Texas

30-6-1, 0

Oklahoma

31-1, 0

Texas

Oklahoma

Photo by: Texas Athletics

03.31.2023 | Softball

Box Score

Texas scored game’s first run; Oklahoma responded with eight unanswered over next six innings

By: Chris Allen Brown

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Everything was clicking for Texas two batters into Friday night's game against No. 1 Oklahoma. But once the top of the first ended, the Sooners rallied to an 8-1 outcome.

Three pitches into her first-ever plate appearance against Oklahoma, Texas freshman Leighann Goode sent a 1-1 pitch over the left-centerfield fence to push the Longhorns ahead by a run. Mia Scott followed by capping a six-pitch at bat with a walk. Following back-to-back strikeouts, Katie Cimusz was hit by a 1-2 pitch to move Scott to second.

Unfortunately, Viviana Martinez grounded out on a 3-2 pitch to bring the top of the first to a close without any more damage.

Oklahoma responded with the game-tying run two batters into the bottom of the first. And then added four more on five hits in the bottom of the second to take a 5-1 lead.

Sophia Simpson entered the pitching circle for Texas with one out in the bottom of the second and recorded two outs before any additional runners scored. Simpson went on to keep the Oklahoma offense out of the run column over the next 3.2 innings before a two-out rally resulted in three more runs for the Sooners.

FROM HEAD COACH MIKE WHITE

"Obviously, it was a packed house and was pretty neat to play in front of over 8,900 fans. It's great for softball. When we agreed to this, that was something we wanted to do. I thought the team came out in this tough environment and played pretty well. We just gave the Sooners extra shots, and they capitalized like great teams do. I was proud of my team tonight. I thought they played hard all the way to the end. Estelle Czech didn't deserve what happened to her. I thought she pitched a little better than that, but, again, we talked about Oklahoma capitalizing on mistakes and they do that very well and that's what great teams do.

GAME NOTES

Friday night's game was played in front of an announced attendance of 8,930, which broke the NCAA single-game regular season attendance record (5,724) set by Fresno State in a doubleheader against Arizona at Bulldog Diamond in Fresno, Calif., in 2000.
Following Leighann Goode's first-inning home run, the Longhorns have hit at least one home run in all their Big 12 Conference games so far this season.
- Of the four Texas conference games this season, a freshman has hit a home run in three of them.
  - Leighann Goode (2): Friday, March 24 vs. Texas Tech; Friday, March 31 at Oklahoma
  - Reese Atwood (1): Saturday, March 25 vs. Texas Tech
Mia Scott drew two walks in three trips to the plate against Jordy Bahl.
- Scott's two walks tied her season high, which she has now accomplished four times with the most recent occurring against Wisconsin on Friday, March 10, 2023.
A pair of Texas freshmen student-athletes accounted for both Longhorns' hits on the evening.
- Leighann Goode's first-inning solo home run to left-centerfield.
- Ashton Maloney's infield single to start the top of the fifth.
Texas' pair of pitchers — Estelle Czech and Sophia Simpson — held Oklahoma's Jayda Coleman without a hit in four official plate appearances, marking the first time this season the junior outfield did not record a hit in at least four trips to the dish.
- Coleman had a pair of 0-3 contests against Duke (Feb. 9, 2023) and Stanford (Feb. 10, 2023) earlier this season.

UP NEXT

Texas (30-6-1) and Oklahoma (31-1) will do battle, again, at 11 AM CT on Saturday, April 1 at Marita Hynes Field in Norman, Okla.
- The game will be broadcasted to a nation-wide audience on ESPN2 with Beth Mowins, Michele Smith and Amanda Scarborough on the call.

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