LUBBOCK – North Texas softball split a pair of games on Saturday, winning 5-1 over Texas-Arlington and losing 8-1 to No. 18 Texas Tech to finish their final tournament of the year.
The Mean Green finished the weekend 1-3 at Rocky Johnson Field.
"It was an average weekend," DeLong said.
Today was the Mean Green’s final in-game preparation before the start of Conference USA play next Saturday, Mar. 9, against Southern Mississippi at Lovelace Field.
After falling to Texas-Arlington on Wednesday and Friday of this week, the Mean Green rebounded for a win behind Hope Trautwein’s pitching and a Tayla Evans two-run homer.
The Mavericks took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning on a sacrifice fly, but the Mean Green would respond with five unanswered runs while Trautwein pitched a complete game and only allowed four hits despite no strikeouts. She improved to 7-2 on the year for UNT.
Lacy Gregory started the scoring for North Texas just an inning later when the Maverick third baseman bobbled a hard-hit ground ball, allowing Kenzie Young to score to tie the game.
However, North Texas didn’t take the lead until the fifth inning, when Tayla Evans’ moonshot cleared the left field fence for a two-run homer. Just a few batters later, Katie Clark joined the action with a 2-RBI single to left field to break open the game for the Mean Green.
Trautwein prevented any comeback from happening. Although the Mavericks reached base in the last three innings, Trautwein and the defense came up in clutch moments to prevent any runs from crossing the plate.
“It all revolves around the circle,” DeLong said. “Hope threw a great game against a lineup who has had a lot of success against us. Hope was key today in us having a chance and she came up big.”
Against No. 18 Texas Tech, things were not as easy. Freshman Bailey Tidwell started in the circle for the Mean Green and allowed eight runs through six innings. However, only three of those runs were earned due to two Mean Green errors.
“We’re going to have to pitch better, make more routine plays and we’re going to have to hit,” DeLong said. “Our identity is our offense, I think, we’re going to have to take pride in that and overcome our defense sometimes.”
Red Raider pitcher Erin Edmoundson improved her record to 10-1 as she only allowed Gregory and Young to acquire the only hits for the Mean Green throughout the game.
The Red Raiders defeated the Mean Green twice this weekend.
UP NEXT:
North Texas (10-7) starts conference play next Saturday at home with a three-game series against Southern Mississippi. Saturday will be a doubleheader with the first game scheduled to start at 1 p.m.
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