North Texas Daily

Softball headed to Hattiesburg, Mississippi on Saturday to play in a doubleheader against the University of Southern Mississippi. The team lost the first game 2-0 but came back and had an explosive performance to win the second game 8-1.

The series is now tied 1-1 going into tomorrow’s game to decide the winner of this series. The win halted a seven-game losing skid for the Mean Green.

Southern Miss 2, North Texas 0

Freshman pitcher Hope Trautwein started both games on Saturday and in game one allowed only three hits and two earned runs while striking out seven. In game two she allowed four hits and had three strikeouts in 5.0 innings pitched.

“The last few games I wasn’t throwing how I usually throw, I kind of lost myself for a little bit,” Trautwein said. “So before the game we did some regrouping, figured out what was wrong and I just showed that I can bounce back from anything.”

North Texas had six hits, twice as much as Southern Miss, but left eight runners on base.

Unfortunately, for the Mean Green (23-24, 9-10), the Golden Eagles’ (19-32, 8-10) hits were more timely as they scored both runs in their last appearance at the plate, in the bottom of the sixth which North Texas was unable to match.

North Texas 8, Southern Miss 1

Lacy and her twin sister Lindsay Gregory combined for three home runs and seven RBIs in game two. That was more than enough to take game two.

“I’ve never not played with [Lindsay] so we like to bat back to back but we’ve never hit back to back homers so it was fun. I think it always benefits my performance, she’s just a comfort for me,” Lacy said.

Coming off of a game where the offense was as stagnant as it has been at any point during the season, North Texas quickly found their bats and locked in to bring in runners on base, unlike in game one.

“The first game we really beat ourselves, we left a lot of runners in scoring position. Hope [Trautwein] pitched a great game so it really fell on offense,” Lacy said. “We didn’t lose any confidence in ourselves, we were on a little skid but we’re going to come out of it and we definitely did in the second game.”

With only four games left of the regular season, one in this series, North Texas looks to finish the season on a high note. Realizing the importance of winning this series, the Mean Green try to stay focused and confident in their approach.

“We talked about it before we left Texas that, you know, we have to come in here and got to still believe that we’re a very good team, and that we have potential to win any game,” head coach Tracey Kee said. “We really have to go out there and fight.”

Featured image: North Texas sophomore Lacy Gregory hits the ball in a game against Prairie View A&M on Feb. 24.