WACO – The Mean Green are off to a program-best 8-1 start and on a five-game winning streak heading into this weekend’s Baylor Invitational at Waco.
After beating then No. 20 Texas A&M two weekends ago in College Station, the Mean Green will be tested again tomorrow afternoon when they square off against No. 21 Baylor, No. 10 Louisiana-Lafayette and Kent State.
The Mean Green start tournament play tomorrow at 10 a.m. against Kent State and will follow with the highly anticipated game against Baylor at 3 p.m.
If there is a year where UNT could knock off not one, but two top-25 teams in the same weekend, this could be the season. I’m not only saying this because I’m a North Texas fan. The Mean Green have shown they have the players to compete at the highest level.
Eight North Texas batters currently have an on-base percentage of .400 or greater and the Mean Green rank No. 18 in the country with a team batting average of .350.
Leadoff hitter and centerfielder Katie Clark leads the ENTIRE nation in hits. She is the only player in Division 1 softball with at least 20 hits through the first two weekends of the season and sports a .568 batting average and .590 OBP.
Just this past Monday, sophomore pitcher Hope Trautwein grabbed the first C-USA pitcher of the week award. In six appearances, Trautwein has 46 strikeouts, a 0.54 ERA and opponents are hitting just .100 against her.
Hanna Rebar has also been nothing short of spectacular in the batting box for North Texas. The junior from San Antonio leads the team in home runs (4), RBIs (15) and slugging percentage (.923). When UNT has needed a big swing in clutch moments, Rebar has been one of the answers.
Harley Perella plays third base and bats No. 2 in the Mean Green lineup. She also has started out with a bang, batting .444 and totaling 15 RBIs.
All of this sets up an exciting tournament this weekend in Waco as the Mean Green look to continue their historic start.
Here's a rundown of this weekend's opponents:
Kent State (3-2): Kent State has beaten Penn State twice, split games with LIU Brooklyn and lost to Florida Gulf Coast in the tournament at Fort Myers, Florida last weekend. They come in swinging the bats well, hitting .313 as a team with 28 runs scored through five games.
No. 21 Baylor (7-4): The Bears have definitely had the toughest schedule of any team heading into this weekend's tournament at Getterman Stadium. Baylor has defeated No. 9 South Carolina, North Carolina and a few Conference USA opponents such as UTSA and Southern Mississippi. The losses came at the hands of No. 2 Washington, BYU and UT-Arlington twice. Needless to say, North Texas will need to play clean softball against the Bears.
No.10 Louisiana-Lafayette (11-0): The Ragin' Cajuns come into the tournament with an undefeated record. However, they haven't played a ranked team and haven't played many teams with a great record. However, the Ragin' Cajuns are still one of the best teams in the nation. They've only had one close call -- a 2-1 victory over Austin Peay -- and have run ruled six different opponents.
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