North Texas Daily

In an extra-inning game between North Texas (8-2) and No. 4 Texas (11-0), 18 total runners were stranded by both teams where the Longhorns walked off in a 3-2 win.

Junior pitcher Hope Trautwein took the bump for North Texas in tonight’s game. She entered Wednesday afternoon’s matchup winning four of her last in-game appearances, striking out 27 and allowing one earned run through 21 innings.

The Mean Green began their top half of the inning with an RBI double by senior second baseman Lacy Gregory, driving in Tarah Hilton. Sophomore Tayla Evans drove in Gregory as the next batter on an RBI single to give North Texas a 2-0 advantage.

Trautwein escaped a first-inning jam allowing one run through a sac fly by Kaitlyn Washington, scoring Texas’ Shannon Rhodes. Trautwein allowed three walks in the first frame where two Longhorns were stranded on base.

The following bottom half of the inning resulted in Trautwein stranding two Longhorn runners on second and third base. A one-out pop-up to Gregory at second base and a running catch by outfielder Hanna Rebar in the left-field foul territory ended Texas’ second inning.

Both North Texas and Texas stranded runners in three of four innings between its halves of innings two through five. Trautwein allowed the Longhorns to one hit through five innings on one run including four walks.

“Hope was awesome tonight,” head coach Rodney Delong said. “It took her a couple of innings to settle in with the conditions being tough, but once the rain went away she threw really well.”

Texas pitcher Shaelyn O’Leary lasted three innings for Texas allowing two runs, one earned run, three hits, two walks and three strikeouts. Courtney Day relieved O’Leary to start the top of the fourth inning. Day pitched two innings allowing one hit and one strikeout. To begin the sixth, Longhorns pitcher Miranda Ellish took the mound to take over for Day.

The Mean Green held a 2-1 lead over Texas heading into the bottom of the seventh inning. Trautwein allowed a leadoff walk and a single to the first two batters. After a sacrifice bunt advancing runners to second and third base, Texas tied the game up at two apiece via a wild pitch. A strikeout and shortstop pop-out to freshman Candain Callahan kept the Longhorns’ winning runs stranded on base.

North Texas began extra inning play in the top of the eighth reaching base on three consecutive hitters by an Evans hit-by-pitch, single by Rebar and junior outfielder Kourtney Williams via an error at first base. The Mean Green failed to score off Ellish with runners in scoring position in their half of the inning after a right field flyout by freshman Saleen Donohoe and a Nicole Ochotnicki groundout.

A one-two-three inning offensively for Texas in the bottom of the eighth pushed the game to nine innings. Camille Callahan came into pinch hit for North Texas at the top of the ninth, where she would be stranded after a foul-out and two consecutive Mean Green strikeouts.

Sophomore Bailey Tindell took the bump in the bottom of the ninth for North Texas. Trautwein’s performance on the day included eight innings pitched allowing two runs on four hits, five walks and five strikeouts.

Texas’ Mary Iokopa began the ninth with a single and later advanced on a sacrifice bunt. A one-out error in right field by North Texas allowed Texas pinch-runner Tuesday Demargosian to score, where the Longhorns sealed a 3-2 victory.

“We put ourselves in a position to win tonight and we should’ve won the game,” DeLong said. “Overall, we played like a championship team today, we played hard, made a lot of good plays and were really competitive all night at the plate. I’m proud of our effort and this experience will definitely make us better.”

Tindell took her first loss of the season, moving to a (3-1) record. Ellish advances to 5-0 on the season with the win where she pitched four innings allowing two hits, one walk and five strikeouts. Gregory and Evans led North Texas offensively, each with an RBI.

UP NEXT: North Texas travels to Corpus Christi on the weekend of Friday, Feb. 21 where they play both Texas Southern (2-7) and Texas A&M Corpus Christi (3-6) twice.

Featured Image: Junior pitcher Bailey Tindell prepares to pitch for the Mean Green during the UNT vs. UTM softball game on February 16th, 2020. Image by Ryan Cantrell