DENTON – Home, sweet home. After squeaking out two wins against UTSA on Friday, the Mean Green offense came alive with 12 hits in a 9-1 victory on Saturday to complete the series sweep over their in-state rival.
North Texas has won nine consecutive games at Lovelace Stadium, improving their home record to 15-1 on the season. The Mean Green haven't lost at home since Southern Mississippi on Mar. 10.
“A sweep is what we needed this weekend,” head coach Rodney DeLong said. “We have to keep the pressure on La Tech and Western Kentucky, so that was our goal for the weekend. We’re sitting good in the standings.”
The Mean Green collected 15 hits throughout the first two games and struggled to manufacture runs in a brutal spring Texas wind. In game three, Katie Clark, Tayla Evans and Nicole Ochotnicki combined for six hits and six RBIs to spark North Texas to an eight-run win.
“I just felt like we were out front all day,” DeLong said. “We didn’t adjust well early in the game and we made a good adjustment there late. We score in spurts and that’s just kind of how we are. A couple hits got us going and I felt confident about it.”
Clark finished the weekend 5-for-11 with two RBIs, two doubles and a stolen base. Although she sat out a couple weeks for an injured wrist, Clark hasn’t seemed to miss a beat.
Perhaps one of the most underrated performances of the weekend came from junior catcher Nicole Ochotnicki. Ochotnicki has done a remarkable job behind the plate all season but came into this weekend’s series batting just .209 with 11 RBIs.
Ochotnicki drove in two of the three runs in game one to lift UNT to a 3-0 victory and knocked two doubles in game three while finishing the series with a team-leading four RBIs.
Evans, the freshman first baseman from nearby Collinsville, Texas, finished the series finale with a 2-for-3 performance and three RBIs. She belted a three-run bomb in the fifth inning to give the Mean Green a 5-1 lead.
Although the offense broke out late, North Texas wouldn’t have come close to earning the sweep if it wasn’t for outstanding pitching from Hope Trautwein. After giving up six earned runs in two games to WKU last week, the sophomore hurled a complete-game shutout in game one and allowed just two runs through 15 1/3 innings pitched this weekend.
That's how you bounce back.
Trautwein improved her record to 18-6 and racked up her fourth save of the year during game two on Saturday.
“In this game, you got to have a [number] one who can do that,” DeLong said. “All the top programs do and she’s been pretty consistent. What we do revolves around her, and I think she’s starting to understand that and get better at the mental side of that role.”
UP NEXT:
UNT (29-15, 14-4 C-USA) welcomes their first power five opponent to Lovelace Stadium this spring in No. 13 Oklahoma State (33-11, 10-2 Big 12) on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
The Cowgirls sit in second place in the Big 12 Conference and trail No. 1 Oklahoma by two games. This will be a fun atmosphere at Lovelace and a huge test for North Texas on Wednesday.