North Texas Daily

Audra Stamp / Staff Writer

The women’s softball team headed to Kentucky last weekend to face off against second ranked team in the Sun Belt Conference in Western Kentucky University, going 1-1 in a double header.

On Saturday, UNT sophomore infielder Jordan Terry led the team with five RBI’s and two runs of her own to win 8-1.

The game was scoreless through three innings, but sophomore outfielder Jennifer Beardsley stole home in the fourth inning and the Hilltoppers (17-10, 6-2) weren’t able to catch up to the Mean Green.

UNT (16-13, 4-3) pulled away in the seventh inning when Terry hit her first career grand slam. Senior utility player Lesley Hirsch also hit her first home run of the season in the seventh inning.

“As a team we were just ready to beat them,” Terry, who had two home runs in the game, said. “We wanted to take care of them in the first game so the second game might be easier.”

Later that day, the teams met again, with the Hilltoppers showing why the team has a 10-3 record at home on the year. WKU only had five hits in the game, but managed to win 4-3.

Hirsch was the first to score in the second inning, but the Hilltoppers answered quickly with two runs of its own in the same inning. WKU added two more runs in the fourth inning. Junior pitcher Ashley Kirk, who had thrown 81 pitches in 4.1 innings in the first game, came in for senior pitcher Brittany Simmons in the fourth inning.

“I think our level of intensity kind of changed from the first game,” Hirsch said. “We just kind of waited until the end to get going and we just came up short.”

On Sunday, the game was rained out in the fourth inning and will not be rescheduled.

The Mean Green will travel Florida today and Wednesday to challenge third best team in the SBC in  Florida Atlantic University (23-18, 6-3). The last time UNT faced the Owls was at last season’s Sun Belt Conference tournament where the Mean Green kept them scoreless winning 3-0.

FAU also hasn’t lost a game since March 12 when it was swept by WKU. Since then, the Owls have gone 9-0. In that streak the Owls have outscored opponents 49 to 10.

“We feel pretty good,” Hirsch said. “I think our pitching and our hitting was together, so we feel pretty confident going into the series with FAU.”

Today’s game will start at 5 p.m. in Florida and a double header will follow on Wednesday.

“The last two years we’ve been very evenly matched, but we’ve come out on top for most,” head coach T.J. Hubbard said. “So I’m feeling really confident.”