In its home opener, No. 2 Texas Softball took down Houston Christian 14-1 in five innings, remaining undefeated and improving its record to 8-0 on the season.
“I thought it was a great atmosphere tonight.” head coach Mike White said. “It’s going to be an exciting season. We’re turning a lot of heads right now, rightfully so, and we’re an exciting team to watch. We’re trying to be ambassadors for softball and grow the game.”
The first inning saw early success for the Longhorns. Sophomore catcher Reese Atwood popped a flyball to deep center with no outs, allowing center fielder and senior Bella Dayton to tag from third and walk her way in for the first run of the game. Texas ended up stranding a pair of baserunners in the inning, and by the time the inning concluded, the Longhorns led by a pair.
Atwood’s first of five RBIs against Houston Christian brought her RBI streak to eight games, tying a program record. She’ll have an opportunity to break that record on Friday against Louisiana.
“I’m able to trust my team,” said Atwood. “I don’t have the pressure to be something bigger than what I am because I know that there are twenty girls behind me that can do the same thing.”
The second inning went by quickly, as senior pitcher Estelle Czech retired all three batters she faced. In three innings, she gave up just one hit on zero runs. In seven innings on the season, she is yet to give up a run.
The third inning is where the Longhorns took off. Senior third baseman Joley Mitchell tripled and doubled. Freshman first baseman Katie Stewart doubled twice, Atwood homered and doubled, and sophomore shortstop Viviana Martinez, freshman left fielder Kayden Henry and sophomore center fielder Leighann Goode all singled, completing the team cycle for the inning, scoring ten runs in the process. As the third inning concluded, the Longhorns had jumped out to an 11-0 lead.
The fourth inning saw slight success for Houston Christian. First baseman Jackie Jessup doubled, bringing in the first run of the game for the Huskies. Junior right-handed pitcher Sophia Simpson gave up her first earned run of the season in the process.
In the bottom of the fourth, Texas’ offense kept on rolling. Both freshman, left fielder Victoria Hunter and Mitchell, homered. Atwood singled as well and Texas scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth, improving its lead to 13 and posting 14 runs to Houston Christian’s 1.
Mitchell ended up having a triple, single and home run for the day, going 3-3 from the plate.
Junior right-handed pitcher Mac Morgan came in to close the game for Texas in the top of the fifth and went 1-2-3 to help improve the Longhorns record to 8-0. Czech was awarded her second win of the season, and Morgan remained undefeated against batters, giving up zero hits in seven total innings pitched.
“I love how they are pushing each other and that’s the key here,” said White. “They are just playing the game the right way.”
Texas will play its next game on Friday against Louisiana at the Red and Charline McCombs Field to kick off the Lone Star State Invitational. The Longhorns will play Colorado State and No. 13/12 Stanford later in the weekend.
