Despite being national champions, the Longhorns were behind going into the bottom of the sixth inning against both No. 25 Washington and No. 9 Nebraska.
The difference in the two games? Texas was able to capitalize on Washington’s late-game mistakes — the Cornhuskers didn’t even give them a chance.
Texas had high hopes freshman pitcher Hannah Wells could continue the momentum she had on Friday night against Nebraska, in which she needed just five pitches to end the game. Instead, Wells looked shaky pitching in Saturday’s second game against the Cornhuskers, giving up two home runs in the first inning, one of which being a three-run home run. Texas entered the bottom of the first inning already trailing by four runs.
The crowd of Texas fans tried to encourage her. Chants of “Texas fight” rang through Roadrunner Field. However, it didn’t seem to make a difference for Wells.
A change in pitching during the third inning didn’t solve the Longhorns’ problems. Sophomore pitcher Brenlee Gonzales allowed Nebraska senior infielder Lauren Camenzind to sink a home run, elevating Nebraska 8-2 before Texas scored three runs, making it 8-5 after three innings.
Against Nebraska, Texas started two freshmen in its lineup and three against Washington. This will hopefully give these players valuable experience in early tournaments that will impact the team in conference play later in the season.
“That’s what we try to do, is get our freshmen going, so they’re going to be part of the program,” head coach Mike White said. “We talk about the depth, and there’s no point having depth if you don’t put them in the lineup.”
Still, Texas found strength in relying on its veterans. In the game against Washington, senior catcher Reese Atwood had two runs, two hits and four RBIs. Atwood’s base hit in the sixth was clutch in putting Texas up three runs after trailing by one entering the bottom of the inning. Senior infielder Leighann Goode had three runs, two hits and two RBIs over the two games.
“It didn’t fall the way we wanted to, but we strung some hard-hit balls together,” Goode said.
Texas figured out its pitching issues too little, too late. Nebraska was scoreless the rest of the game; however, so was Texas. The Longhorns couldn’t make up for the ground they had lost in the early game. Nebraska senior pitcher Jordyn Frahm allowed just three hits for zero runs in the last four innings.
On top of Nebraska’s stacked bullpen, the Cornhuskers left only two runners on base in the whole game compared to Texas’ six. The Longhorns just couldn’t capitalize when their runners were in scoring position.
By the top of the seventh inning, cheers from fans wearing burnt orange subsided into nervous chatter. Were they really going to witness the reigning champions lose their third game of the season? After a strong demonstration against the Cornhuskers last night, the Texas batters looked fatigued, and the Nebraska outfield seemed to know where every single fly-ball would land.
Texas lost its first game of the season by taking a chance on some inexperienced freshman players, but the doubleheader showed this team will push its players against ranked opponents early in the season when the win isn’t guaranteed.
