TAMPA, FL – On Friday, the University of Texas softball program felt the highest highs and the lowest lows during its 9-1 win over Marist in five innings and then a 4-3 loss to USF.
The Longhorn offense erupted for nine runs in three innings — highlighted by five runs in the bottom of the second — against Marist, but then was chased by a game-ending solo home run by USF in the bottom of the seventh inning to break up the day’s action.
BY SENIOR COACH MIKE WHITE
“Obviously it was a long day on the field. I thought we did a pretty good job of coming back during the first game. Citlaly (Gutierrez) came in and did a good job for us and shut (Marist) down to get the win after five innings. But we didn’t really have our A game tonight (against USF) and it showed. And it was disappointing to see us not come out with our A stuff against a good team.”
GAME NOTES
- With her inside-the-park grand slam in the bottom of the second inning against Marist, Bella Dayton became the first Longhorn softball student-athlete to record back-to-back grand slams in the Texas record books since Lindsay Stevens on Feb. 6-7, 2015.
- Dayton became one of three student-athletes in program history to have back-to-back grand slams in the Longhorn softball record books, joining Stevens and Taylor Thorne.
- Bella Daytonwith her second inning grand slam inside the park against Marist, became one of only 11 female student-athletes in program history with two or more career grand slams.
- Dayton is the first Longhorn student-athlete to accomplish the feat in his career since Shannon Rhodes hit a grand slam against Texas Southern on March 12, 2021 for his second career grand slam.
- With her hits in every game of the day, Reese Atwood extended his career hitting streak to six consecutive games.
- Atwood’s current six-game hitting streak is tied Courtney Day for the fifth-longest hitting streak by a Longhorn softball student-athlete this season.
- Texas Lee Goode and Viviana Martinez will enter the Longhorns’ two games Saturday as the only Division I freshman-athletes in the country with 40 or more hits.
- Goode has a team-leading 41 hits in 103 appearances, while Martinez is credited with 40 hits in 92 at-bats.
- By taking a full walk count against USF Friday night, Courtney Day is now one free pass away from tying her single-season walk total (15), set in 58 games during the 2022 season.
- With her fifth-inning single to start the top of the fifth inning against USF, Mia Scott extended his hitting streak to nine games.
- Scott now owns the longest such streak by a Longhorn student-athlete this season with a 19-game on-base streak.
- Scott’s current nine-game on-base streak is tied with Courtney Day for the fifth-longest such streak this season.
NEXT
- Texas (23-5-1) will continue its South Florida Showdown run on Saturday, March 18 when the Longhorns play Lehigh at 1:00 pm CT and then Iowa at 6:00 pm CT.
- Iowa (17-10) split its two-game slate Friday with an 8-7 win over Marist in 11 innings before falling to Lehigh 3-1 in seven.
- Lehigh (17-4) opened the day by defeating Iowa 3-1 before falling to USF 8-7 in eight innings.
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