North Texas Daily

The North Texas softball team (16-10, 5-1 Conference USA) was shutout against the No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners (26-2) on Wednesday evening in Norman, Oklahoma by a score of 8-0.

The Sooners jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and carried the momentum through the rest of the game.

“We haven’t played a very good first inning in a while,” head coach Rodney DeLong said. “It didn’t help-falling behind three-zero there. We kind of settled in for a few innings, but we gave them too much credit. We didn’t compete like we normally compete.”

The Sooners proceeded to score three more on the Mean Green in the fourth inning.

“You get behind a team like that, with a pitcher playing like that, it’s tough,” DeLong said. “You don’t want to fall behind early, you really want to get ahead and put pressure on someone and they put the pressure on us from the get-go.”

Freshman pitcher Hope Trautwein started the game for North Texas and in her three innings pitched she allowed six runs that freshman Bailey Tindell and junior Jenna Goodrich relieved.

“Hope settled in there for a bit,” DeLong said. “This is really just a game we needed to move on from, it was good all three of them got to throw. It’s good to face them they definitely make you better and make you compete.”

Two runs were hit off Tindell in the fifth to walk off the game and end the night for North Texas.

“If you miss or make a mistake they’re going to make you pay,” DeLong said. “Every one of those kids could play for us.”

The Mean Green remain 5-1 in conference and second to only the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (21-7, 3-0 C-USA), who they face off against on March 23-24 in Ruston, Louisiana.

“Louisiana Tech is a great team,” DeLong said. “We’re going to have our hands full, but if we go down there and work and compete. I like our chances.”

Featured Image: Junior catcher Nicole Ochotnicki catches a pitch from Hope Trautwein at the game against Texas-El Paso on March 17, 2019. Image by: Jordan Collard