It was a victory that will be remembered for a long time to come. Torie Schmidt gave the Longhorns the win in Saturday’s game against Texas A&M with walk-off double that knocked in two runs.

The junior out of California went three for four on Saturday. Schmidt has 42 hits on the year to go with 23 RBI and 22 runs.

After Thursday’s game against the Aggies the Longhorns weren’t in the position they wanted to be. They were shut down and were losing the series with their longtime rival, risking a point in the State Farm Lone Star Showdown.

Saturday wasn’t looking too well for Texas either as it was on the losing side of a 6-5 score until the last inning. That is where Schmidt came in.

The outfielder got up to bat with a runner in scoring position. A wild pitch put two runners into scoring position and that is when she worked her magic. Schmidt blasted a double that knocked in two runs giving her three RBI and the victory for the Longhorns.

“It was up and in, actually and I was able to keep my hands up there,” said Schmidt on the game-winning hit. “I was just going to put the bat on the ball, anything that was close.”

The deficit was tough to come back from but the team knew what they had to do.

“We had to go up there and be aggressive,” Schmidt said. “We had to limit our strikeouts looking from [Thursday’s] game so that’s what we thought about, going up there and putting the bat on the ball on anything close to the strike zone. We have to hand it to Rachel [Fox], she came in and did a great job. She just went in there and was confident and hit her spots and that gave us confidence to go up to the
plate and hit.”

With that win the Longhorns kept their chances alive for winning the series and the Lone Star showdown. It’s a good thing they did because Sunday proved even better as they won their final game against the Aggies.

Head Coach Connie Clark knew right after Thursdays game that Saturday was going to be the day the team got their spark back and would capture the victory.

“We talked about it immediately in the locker room following the game on Thursday night, that the quality of their next performance starts as soon as they get rid of the last one and we learn from it,” Clark said. “I thought like we had a tremendous practice yesterday [Friday], with the focus of it’s the game. The game is the game, get ready to go, and be ready to fight, and play with an edge on our turf because that makes a difference. I am very proud.”

Schmidt has always been a large part of the team’s success. As a sophomore last year she was ranked fifth overall on the team for batting average and was named to the Academic All-Big 12 team. As such a vital part of the team, the Longhorns will continue to see how she impacts play moving into the postseason.

Printed on Monday, April 30, 2012 as: Schmidt delivers in fianl at-bat with game-winning double