North Texas Daily

After dropping consecutive games against the University of Texas at El Paso on Saturday afternoon, North Texas could not find a way to bounce back and fell to the Miners 4-3 in a tension filled game three.

The Mean Green suffered their first three game sweep of the season as a result.

“UTEP outplayed us in every facet this weekend,” head coach Tracey Kee said. “They pitched better than we did, hit better and just had more timely hitting when we did.”

Freshman pitcher Hope Trautwein took the mound and tossed six strong innings while allowing only one earned run on six hits, striking out two. The defeat gives Trautwein back-to-back losses for the first time in conference play.

“I thought Hope threw a great game,” Kee said. “It was night and day from yesterday’s game. She could’ve carried yesterday’s performance over to today, but she didn’t, so credit to her.”

The Mean Green struck first in the bottom of the second off a three-run home run from sophomore catcher Nicole Ochotnicki that would contribute to the only runs for North Texas.

Just one inning later, UTEP capitalized off an error to bring the game to within two.

The Miners then used a solo home run and two more Mean Green errors in the fourth and fifth innings to take the lead. All three Mean Green errors led to runs in UTEP’s favor.

“The only word I could use to describe our defense was atrocious,” Kee said. “If you give a good hitting team like UTEP more outs than what the game calls for, you’re probably going to always end up on the losing side.”

However, North Texas would make the contest interesting in the top of the seventh inning.

Sophomore outfielder Katie Clark started the final frame with a leadoff walk and advanced to scoring position by a sacrifice bunt from sophomore infielder Lindsay Gregory.

Following that, sophomore infielder Lacy Gregory ripped a ball into left field and Kee waved Clark around third base to try and tie the game. A very close play at the plate ruled Clark out at the plate for the second out of the inning.

After sophomore outfielder Camille Grahmann came in and ran for Lacy Gregory at second base, junior infielder Sam Rea found a hole and sent a single past the first base side. Kee risked it all again by sending Grahmann to score, but a throw from the Miners’ right fielder had Grahmann beat by a full step to end the game.

North Texas will now likely fall into the middle part of the C-USA standings, just one week after holding the first place spot.

“We have to clean things up,” Kee said. “We have to get back and work hard and realize that we have to take advantage of the conference games we have left.”

Up next: North Texas will return back to Denton and host a non-conference match up with Abilene Christian University at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

Featured image: North Texas sophomore Lacy Gregory throws the ball in a game against Houston Baptist University on Apr. 11 at Lovelace Stadium. Sara Carpenter