Season Statistics 

AUSTIN – North Texas put the would-be, game-tying run on base in the top of the seventh, but the Mean Green were unable to complete the comeback, falling to Texas by a score of 4-2 on Wednesday night in Austin.

“Our offense, once they got aggressive at the plate, did a nice job tonight,” head coach Tracey Kee said. “Leaving runners on base and leaving runners in scoring position has been our story all season. Some days, it goes your way, and other days, it doesn’t. We did a nice job of competing after the second inning.”

Junior Jessica Elder came on in relief in the third inning and went on to retire each of the 12 batters that she faced in the game. She also inherited a pair of runners in the third inning and stranded them both with a perfect inning of relief.

Texas staked a 4-0 lead through two innings, scoring two runs each in the first and second innings. In the first inning, the Longhorns strung together three hits through the infield and a sacrifice fly to score two runs. In the second inning, senior Holly Kern provided the big hit with a two-out, two-RBI triple to extend the lead to 4-0.

“At the beginning of the game, we had opportunities to not have that extended first inning, and the result was four runs,” Kee said. “That was the difference in the ball game. I can’t say enough about Jess. She comes in and retires 12 straight batters. She comes into a pressure situation and she gets out of it. I’m very pleased and I’m very happy for her.”

North Texas threatened in the early innings, leaving four runners on base through four innings, including runners on second and third with one out in the fourth, before breaking through in the top of the fifth.

Freshman outfielder Hannah Gerecke led off the fifth with a single to right-center and then freshman outfielder Bailey Thompson worked a four-pitch walk. And then with runners at second and third and two outs in the inning, senior Karly Williams delivered with a two-RBI single to left to make it a 4-2 game.

The Mean Green threatened again in the top of the seventh. After the first out was recorded, freshman pinch hitter Kay Kay Hayter and junior shortstop Kelli Schkade singled in back-to-back at-bats, putting the would-be, game-tying run on base. A groundout to the pitcher and a pop out to the pitcher closed out the game.

“We always dissect the game and we discussed how if we had shown up earlier defensively, we wouldn’t have put ourselves in that situation,” Kee said. “We also discussed how we might have pitched tighter in the early innings.”

Quick Hits:

• North Texas has now lost 13 straight games overall, dating back to a 10-2 win over Georgia Tech on April 10
• North Texas concludes the nonconference portion of its schedule with a 17-14 record, including a 2-7 record against Big 12 Conference teams
• North Texas moves to 1-13 all-time against Texas, losing each of the last six meetings, with the lone win coming during the 2010 season
• Coming on in relief during the third inning, Jessica Elder retired each of the 12 batters that she faced in the game, including a pair of strikeouts
• Rhylie Makawe tallied her 13th multi-hit game of the season, the third-most on the team this season, while Hannah Gerecke tallied her second multi-hit game this season

What's Next:

North Texas returnd home for its final Conference USA series against UAB, beginning with a doubleheader Saturday. First pitch for game one is set for 1 p.m. from Lovelace Stadium.

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