North Texas Daily

North Texas entered Tuesday night’s game in Waco looking to extend their recent success against Baylor University. Since 2015 they have had a 4-1 record against the Lady Bears.

While history was on their side, the once again nationally ranked Bears this time got the better of the Mean Green 2-0 behind the pitching of Gia Rodoni

Head coach Tracey Kee knew that it would be a challenge of playing the No. 13 ranked team in the nation with a star pitcher, but North Texas tried to not change too much going in.

“A lot of it is us just trying to play our own game,” Kee said. “We try to clean up our defense, continue to swing the bat and pitch well. We kind of approach each game the same way.”

There was stellar pitching in the 1st and 2nd innings with the Mean Green’s freshman Hope Trautwein and Baylor’s Rodoni. Rodoni went on to have ten strike outs and Trautwein finished with two.

While Rodoni got the win and did not allow an out, Trautwein’s performance was not overlooked by her coach.

“I thought Hope threw a tremendous game tonight, to keep a very dangerous Baylor offense in check and she showed great maturity,” Kee said.

Trautwein finished only allowing one extra base hit in the game and only walked three, keeping the Lady Bears out of scoring position for much of the night.

“Obviously it’s Baylor, so I just need to focus on every single pitch and execute,” Trautwein said. “That was my main goal, to execute well so I can give my offense enough time to score. I’ve been trying to implement more variety of pitches into patterns and I feel like I did really well tonight with picking spots and changing speeds.”

Kee also tipped her hat to Rodoni’s performance, shutting out a North Texas team who had been hitting the ball well in recent games.

“I think our hitters today faced one of the best pitchers in the nation,” Kee said. “I mean this kid took Baylor to the World Series last year, she’s not just a fluke. And I think she showed that tonight.”

North Texas had some trouble getting hits in this outing, with the first hit not coming until the top of the 4th from sophomore second baseman Lacey Gregory.

“I think all the kids made adjustments individually,” Kee said. “If you looked for an off speed [you would get the opposite]. [Rondoni] is a well polished and established pitcher.”

Harley Perella tried to get the team rolling in the 5th inning with a single up the middle but was thrown out at second for the third out of the inning.

Baylor showed their number thirteen ranked offense in the bottom of the 6th. They scored two runs off of 2 hits leaving one on base. The runs proved to be the only runs scored in the game and were the difference this time around.

Trautwein looks to grow and recover from the loss and knows it will only help.

“I can do it,” said Trautwein. “I have the confidence in myself and if can hang with number thirteen team in the nation I can hang with anyone.”

Next up: The Mean Green return home to face conference foe Louisiana Tech University in a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m. then 3 p.m.

Featured image: North Texas freshman pitcher Hope Trautwein (7) pitches the ball. , Saturday, March, 3, 2018, Lovelace Park in Denton, Texas. Jake King/