BEVO BEAT Softball
Texas unable to leapfrog UCLA and Washington following its big wins in California
Posted March 3rd, 2020
On Tuesday, Texas found itself looking up at two teams it had recently beat.
For the second straight week, Texas has been ranked third in the NFCA’s national poll. Texas (20-3) received its first two first-place votes of the season, and its 738 total points trailed only the 793 points gathered by UCLA (19-1) and the 766 points earned by Washington (19-2). Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Baylor, which were ranked sixth, 14th and 21st, joined Texas as the Big 12’s representatives in the poll.
Both Texas and the American-Statesman have traditionally observed the NFCA poll when discussing rankings. This week, Texas did climb to No. 1 in Softball America’s poll. The Longhorns trail only UCLA in the rankings done by both USA Softball and D1Softball.
Starting with a 2-1 win over No. 10 Louisiana at McCombs Field this past Tuesday, Texas beat four ranked teams in a five-day span. The Longhorns opened a trip to California with back-to-back wins over UCLA and Washington. UCLA and Washington were ranked first and second last week.
UT also shutout No. 13 Michigan this past Saturday, but an impressive week was not without blemishes. Louisiana split its doubleheader with the Longhorns, and Fresno State bested Texas at the Judi Garman Classic in California. Now ranked eighth and 25th by the NFCA, Louisiana and Fresno State both beat Texas by one run.
Burke helped @TexasSoftball to four top-15 wins, ๐ถ๐ป๐ฐ๐น๐๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ต๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ฝ-๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐ถ๐ฐ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ณ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ผ๐๐ฟ๐, hitting .4โฃ5โฃ8โฃ with 7โฃ extra base hits and 6โฃ RBIs.
Lauren Burke (@lauren_burke5) is the #Big12SB Player of the Week. pic.twitter.com/JSiohRddXU
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) March 3, 2020
OโLeary went 2-0 across three starts against No. 9/10 Louisiana, No. 2/2 Washington and No. 13/11 Michigan.
She carried a 2โฃ.3โฃ3โฃ ERA, a ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ฝ๐น๐ฒ๐๐ฒ ๐ด๐ฎ๐บ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐๐๐ผ๐๐ and 1โฃ1โฃ strikeouts over 15 innings.
Shea O'Leary (@Sheabug29) is the #Big12SB Pitcher of the Week. pic.twitter.com/97w2NJ2V6H
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) March 3, 2020
On Tuesday, the Big 12 announced that Texas’ Lauren Burke and Shea O’Leary had been named the conference’s player and pitcher of the week. Texas has four games on this week’s schedule. UT will host Liberty (7-11), Texas Southern (7-10) and New Mexico (10-10) at a Longhorn Invitational that begins on Friday.
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