Softball Sports

Down to the wire, softball drops doubleheader to Texas

doubleheader

The Cougars barely lost both games against the University of Texas on Sunday, going 3-1 in the first game and 2-1 in the second | File Photo/The Cougar

The Cougar softball team traveled to Austin for a doubleheader on Sunday but ultimately dropped both to Texas in a tight contest.

The Cougar starting pitchers, sophomore Savannah Heebner and freshman Trystan Melancon, kept the scores close in both affairs. But in each case the Longhorns managed to pull out a victory, beating the Cougars by three combined runs.

Coming into the game, the two teams had almost opposite circumstances. The Cougars, despite coming off a loss to McNeese State, had won their first conference series, an away victory against UCF. Whereas the Longhorns were coming off a win against UTSA after getting swept by Oklahoma State, their first conference opponent.

In the first game, senior Shelby Miller got the game started for the Cougars as her sac fly put the first run on the board. That proved to be the their only score of the game as Longhorn pitcher Erica Wright struck out four batters while only giving up one hit.

Heebner in contrast gave up eight hits over her seven innings pitched. University of Texas won the game 3-1.

Close affairs

The second game was much closer as both teams were either scoreless or tied for six of the eight innings played. This time Texas opened the scoring with a sac fly RBI in the bottom of the fifth.

However the Cougars came right back with three straight singles from Miller, redshirt sophomore Sarah Barker and sophomore Elise LeBeouf to load the bases with only one out.

This proved to be a missed opportunity as the Cougars only managed to tie that game at 1-1 off of an error. Instead of putting themselves up by multiple runs, the game remained tied, giving UT new life.

Although Melancon put on a great effort, striking out four, and forced the game into extra innings, Texas managed to score in the bottom of the 8th to win 2-1.

Despite the results, the softball team showed that they have the skill to compete in close games. They showed there are just little things they need to work on to win these tight games. This series simply did not go their way.

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