SOFTBALL: Longhorns complete weekend sweep

Michael Zogg

The Longhorns were able to complete the sweep of the Cyclones on Sunday. Texas beat Iowa State 10-2 after five innings for the second straight game shortened game at the Southwest Athletics Complex.

The contest between the Cyclones and the Longhorns began the exact same way on Sunday as it did on Saturday, one out and two runners on for Texas junior catcher Amy Hooks. She delivered both times, hitting a monster shot over the left field fence to give the Longhorns a 3-0 first inning lead.

While Texas dominated both offensively and defensively on Saturday, Sunday the Cyclones were able to put up a fight against Longhorn ace Blaire Luna.

Iowa State ended Luna’s bid for a second straight no-hitter early on Sunday. Carleigh Berry got a hit off Luna in the Cyclones first at bat of the day, doing what Iowa State couldn’t do in 16 hitters on Saturday.

“We were more patient at the plate,” coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler said. “As the game went on, we were able to get more people on base and she started missing a little bit, but we weren’t swinging at it like we were yesterday.”

The Cyclones didn’t have trouble getting runners on base against Luna all day, but they did have trouble getting them around to score. The Cyclones had base runners in every inning except the fourth. In all, they had 6 runners left on base, including two runners stranded at third.

“Luna is still a great pitcher,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said. “Great pitchers continue even when situations are tough. They make good quality pitches.”

Again, the Longhorns used the home run to power their offense with four of the team’s seven runs coming via the big fly. On Saturday, all eight Texas runs were scored on home runs.

After the first four runs of the game were scored via the home run, the Longhorns started playing small ball, scoring the next 6 runs without the aid of a round tripper.

“They are probably the best team in the Big 12 and the way they hit the ball really shows it,” freshman pitcher Tori Torrescano said. “They hit every mistake that you throw out there. I was happy with some of the things I did, but I have to make less mistakes out there because they hit them out.”

Sophomore Tianna Allen, who transferred from College of St. Catherine, appeared in her first game as a Cyclone. Allen faced one Longhorn, Taylor Hoagland in the at bat, getting her to pop out to the short stop for Texas’ final out of the game.

Sydni Jones became the school record holder for walks in a single season, drawing her 25th of the season in the second inning.