It took almost the entire weekend, but senior center fielder Brejae Washington finally broke the Texas career hits record Sunday against Oklahoma State.
Washington reached on her signature bunt base hit for her 246th career base hit, passing Lexi Bennett for first on the Texas all-time hit list.
“It felt good to finally get it over with,” Washington said, after her teammates pied her in the face to celebrate.
Washington added a second-inning RBI to help Texas come back from a tough Friday loss to secure a series victory with a 3-0 win over Oklahoma State on Sunday.
“No team is going to lay down, so to come back after that and pull off the series win — we couldn’t ask for more,” Washington said.
Washington, who had a hit in each of the first two games of the series to tie the record, used her speed and the perfectly placed bunt to get to first base without a throw in the first inning. Head coach Connie Clark said she was excited for Washington, who also holds the program record for stolen bases as well when the hit came.
“She’s … just processing and continuing to not get too anxious up there,” Clark said. “I’m sure it was in the back of her head, but she didn’t play like it.”
In the first game of the series, Texas held a 3-1 lead going into the top of the seventh, but Oklahoma State rallied with four runs in the inning to triumph 5-3. Saturday, the Longhorns shut down any chance of a repeat, scorching the Cowgirl’s pitching staff for 12 runs across two innings for a 12-1 run-rule win.
Sunday’s game looked eerily similar to Friday’s. The Longhorns scored all of their runs in the second inning, thanks to two walks and three big hits. The Cowgirls continued to threaten, loading the bases once, getting runners at the corners twice, but junior pitcher Gabby Smith kept them off the board. Smith said she just focused on competing whenever she got into a jam.
“I really just needed to compete out there and take it slow,” Smith said. “I got the outcome because of that.”
All hands were on deck this weekend for Texas. Sophomore first baseman Holly Kern injured her arm in a collision at first base Saturday, forcing freshman second baseman Kelli Hanzel to start her first career game on Sunday. Freshman ace pitcher Tiarra Davis threw 187 pitches in the first two games, and Smith came in to give her the day off.
Clark said the team’s depth has been a key part of its success this season.
“We don’t even call our bench players ‘bench players’; we actually call them ‘difference makers,’” Clark said. “There’s going to be a time when we have to tap into a difference maker or two or three, and that worked out well for us.”
Texas continues conference play Friday, hosting Kansas at 7 p.m.