WKU drops conference series to North Texas

Maple Grove, Minnesota sophomore Jordan Mauch hits a single in the first inning of the softball game’s first game of a double header against Florida International University. Justin Gilliland

Hunter Frint

The Lady Topper softball team dropped their series against North Texas this weekend with one win from the first game, but two losses split between Friday and Saturday.

The first game of the series began on Friday at 3 p.m. Junior Kathryn Downing threw the first pitch for WKU to start off the game. The Lady Toppers grabbed the first two runs of the game after two complete innings.

North Texas caught up rather quickly after their turn to bat in the third and tied the score at an even 2-2. Freshman Bryce Holmgren came up to bat and added her tenth RBI of the season, upping the score 3-2 for WKU’s lead.

This score held until the seventh inning where a WKU error allowed the Mean Green to tie the score once again. The game then went into WKU’s first extra inning of the year.

The winning runs were scored thanks to Senior Brooke Holloway who helped to add three more runs to the team’s score. The final score was 6-3.

The Lady Toppers then headed into the second game of the series beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday. North Texas hit off the game with one run scored.

At the bottom of the first WKU came back and tied the score when Sophomore Carleigh Chaumont made it home off Freshman Kelsey McGuffin’s fly ball.

North Texas was determined to stay ahead and notched three more runs in the top of the second. The Mean Green scored three runs on four hits.

WKU stepped up the offense in the top of the third to try to prevent any more runs for North Texas. This paid off for them and the top of the third ended with North Texas having scored no runs.

Sophomore Jordan Mauch hit homerun in the bottom of the third to continue her season hitting streak. The hit drove home herself and Chaumont to bring the score to 4-3.

North Texas continued to score runs until the end when they finalized the 9-4 score. Mauch scored one last run in the fifth inning for the Lady Toppers.

In the third game the third inning was where the action took off for both teams when they scored five runs a piece.

North Texas scored a run right off the bat, and then an RBI triple was hit before one last run home had the team ahead of WKU by 5 runs.

WKU mirrored North Texas’ performance in the bottom of the third when Mauch, Holmgren and Parker all contributed.

The Mean Green scored two more runs in the next inning, one in the sixth and the winning two in the seventh. The Lady Toppers dropped the game and the series with this loss.

“We’re not happy about it,” said Tudor. “I feel like we got beat in all facets of the game.”

Next, WKU will take on University of Louisville in a home game at the WKU Softball Complex on Wednesday, March 30 at 6 p.m.