The No. 19 Lady Bears stumped North Texas on Wednesday night at Getterman Stadium to take the win, 2-0.
“It was a perfect midweek game,” said head coach Glenn Moore. “The scoreboard wasn’t a good indicator of our offense because I thought we had quality at bats.”
The Lady Bears (28-7) looked for revenge against North Texas (18-13) after they took the previous two matchups against the Lady Bears in the Getterman Classic earlier this season.
“I know they had motivation from that because a team came in here and took the Getterman title from them,” Moore said. “They are a good team; they are scrappy; they are tough to beat.”
The Lady Bears were coming off a split doubleheader to No. 4 Louisiana-Lafayette Tuesday night. After dominating in the first game, the Lady Bears’ late run in the second game was not enough to overcome ULL’s early lead.
On Wednesday, North Texas set the momentum by getting two batters on base quickly.
Freshman pitcher Gia Rodoni, who was seeing her first collegiate start, was in a pickle. But Rodoni was focused to get a strikeout.
Senior third baseman Sarah Smith grabbed a grounder to get the out at first base.
“Pretty much everything was working, but I had more confidence than in the past games. I think that was key for me to have confidence and go in there and pitch comfortably,” Rodoni said. “I’m excitied every day that I get to play, and I just take advantage of it.”
Sophomore center fielder Jessie Scroggins answered right back for the Lady Bears, grounding to get on base, then stealing two bases to find herself on third and scoring after a pop-up to right field by sophomore first baseman Shelby Friudenberg.
Continuing to dominate in the second inning, Rodoni threw three strikeouts to keep the Lady Bears up 1-0.
“She goes at them. If they are going to beat her, they are going to beat her swinging,” Moore said. “That’s what I want to see out of my pitchers.”
North Texas was able to get two batters on in the third, but once again were unable to produce runs.
Baylor sophomore pitcher Kendall Potts came on in the fifth inning for Rodini to continue to shut down North Texas.
After yet another pitching change for North Texas in the sixth inning allowed the Lady Bears to find a spark, senior right fielder Linsey Hays hit a deep ball to center field to get on second.
Senior Sarah Smith drove in pinch runner Linsey after hitting a ball deep over UNT’s left fielder to give the Lady Bears a 2-0 lead.
“I feel good,” Moore said. “I certainly feel we are in pretty good shape right now. We just need to keep not being satisfied because we are chasing a Big 12 title.”
With North Texas unable to get anything going, a pop up to sophomore short stop Caitlin Charlton allowed the Lady Bears to take the win 2-0.
“Our goal was to come out here and win this game, and we won,” Smith said.
The Lady Bears will look to continue with the momentum against Iowa State in a three day series starting Friday at 4 p.m. in Ames, Iowa.
“Their numbers don’t always look good, but they are a tough offensive team,” Moore said. “We are going to have a change of climate, but we are just going to have to go up there and test our focus.”
