North Texas Daily

Akshay Mirchandani // Staff Writer

The Mean Green softball team continued its road trip by defeating Marshall University on Saturday in Huntington, W. Va., in the first two of its three games this weekend.

Game 1

The Mean Green (26-15, 11-5) pulled away late in the game to take a 7-3 win over the Thundering Herd (17-25, 6-9).

UNT got on the board first with a solo home run by senior infielder Brooke Foster in the third. Junior infielder Dani Hoff followed that up with a solo home run of her own in the fourth inning to give the Mean Green a 2-0 lead.

“It is a good time to be turning this ship around after a couple of rough spots,” head coach Tracey Kee said in a Mean Green Sports press release. “Going into the end of our season, we are in a perfect spot to make sure we reach the goals we set at the beginning of the season as far as the conference tournament is concerned.”

Marshall cut the UNT lead to 2-1 in the sixth inning, but the Mean Green countered with a five-run seventh inning to distance itself from Marshall. Senior pitcher Ashley Kirk threw 6 1/3 innings with nine strikeouts to get her 17th win of the year.

“We just stuck with our game plan at the plate and our offensive approach,” senior outfielder Jackie Miller said. “I think we learned from at bat to at bat so we knew to expect.”

Game 2:

The second game of the day had the Mean Green making a huge comeback for a 9-8 win after giving up a five-run lead.

UNT had a 7-2 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning, but the Thundering Herd stormed back and scored six runs in the bottom of the sixth to take an 8-7 lead. However, the Mean Green came back and loaded the bases in the top of the seventh to set up a two RBI single for Hoff which gave the Mean Green the lead back at 9-8.

“The first pitch she threw, she pretty much threw it right down the middle. Her mentality was to get ahead,” Hoff said. “After I got two strikes on me, all I could think about putting the ball in play and giving Jen [Beardsley] an opportunity to score.”

Marshall couldn’t produce another comeback in the bottom of the seventh and the Mean Green escaped with a win.

While UNT swept the day, it wasn’t all celebration afterwards. In the second inning of game two, sophomore utility Karly Williams was hit in the jaw by a pitch and was hospitalized.

“We actually got to drive by to the hospital after the game and we didn’t get to go in, but the coaches got to go in,” Miller said. “Karly is a pretty shy person and she doesn’t talk much, and as soon as the coaches walked in they said that she was smiling and talking.”

The Mean Green will play Marshall again tomorrow at 10 a.m. in Huntington to try to sweep the series.