Softball team prepares for game against national powerhouse
Photo by : Carrie Canova
For the third home game of the fall season, the Mean Green softball team will face Oklahoma University tonight at 6 p.m. at Lovelace Stadium.
Last season, UNT lost to the Sooners both times the teams met. In February, UNT played OU in Norman, Okla., and fell short 4-1 against the then-No. 8 team in the nation. Two months later, UNT lost 9-4 at Lovelace Stadium when the Sooners were ranked as the No. 6 team in the nation.
Heading into this season, the Sooners are again ranked as the No. 6 team in the nation by ESPN.com.
Head coach T.J. Hubbard said the team will be focusing on offense for the game today against a nationally ranked school.
“I think we have straightened out communication, and we have straightened out our base running,” Hubbard said. “We have a pretty good idea of where we are defensively, but now to get back on track and our focus will be hitting.”
In both matchups last season, senior pitcher Brittany Simmons pitched against stiff competition. Then-senior pitcher Keilani Ricketts struck out 14 UNT batters and accounted for three of the four runs scored, from a two-run home run and an RBI single.
This year, Simmons said the team needs to “have more fight” when UNT plays a team like the Sooners.
“I think a lot of the young kids don’t understand how much you have to have a tenacious nature,” Simmons said. “You can’t just be complacent with the things that are going on when everything goes wrong. You have to want to fight for it.”
Junior pitcher Lauren Poole, who pitched this past weekend against West Texas A&M, said that hitting is going to be necessary in the game tonight. In the previous two games, the Mean Green was able to only score one run in two games combined.
“We definitely need to come out and play,” Poole said. “Our bats need to start working, and we need to help out the pitcher by scoring runs and doing our job.”
After the game against Oklahoma, the team will have two more games in the fall season against North Central Texas College.
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