 |
| Monique Garcia throws against UTEP in Game 1 |
Coach Kee was pessimistic of her team's motivation -- not of it's ability -- but more so of when a good performance or a bad one would appear. As she likes to point out, the Mean Green beat #7 Baylor earlier this season, and have also lost to some teams below their mark.
But, this weekend proved to be where North Texas finally took a stand and swept UTEP in three games (12-4, 9-3, 14-6). Maybe, all it took was a little pressure -- that's something that centerfielder Kat Strunk hinted at when I talked to her after the third match.
The saying is that pressure creates diamonds, but a song by a rapper Strunk listens to takes it further by adding that fire refines gold.
Pressure could be the catalyst to a fantastic offensive weekend, or it could also be the desire to send the four seniors (Strunk, Dani Hoff, Jen Beardsley and Madison Thompson) to the Conference USA tournament. Strunk pounded the Miners for a school-record seven RBIs in Game 3, including two home runs to go along with the game-winning bomb in Game 1 on Saturday.
The biggest thing about sweeping UTEP and Charlotte losing its series against FIU is North Texas grabs the seventh seed for the tourney and avoids facing No. 1 Western Kentucky until the championship.
Western is led by ace Madison Kramer who mowed down the Mean Green in three games earlier this season, and has sliced through most of the competition without breaking a sweat this year.
Kramer is 21-8 with a 0.84 ERA, has tossed twelve shutouts and averages 13 strikeouts per game (her full stats). She is insane and a potential match-up on the third day of the tourney bodes a whole lot better than facing a fresh Kramer on day one.
The only problem is North Texas will tango FAU in its opening contest on Thurs,, May 7 at 3:00 p.m. CST. The Owls are the number two seed in the eight team tournament and, as a team, are tied with WKU in earned run average.
FAU and the Mean Green did not play each other this season, but did battle in the first round of the tourney when the Owls hosted last year. North Texas won a 10-inning affair that went deep into the evening in Boca Raton 5-4 thanks in large part to program legend Ashley Kirk and current super slugger Taylor Schoblocher (Box Score).
The Mean Green lost the next day to top seeded Tulsa 7-1.
So although North Texas played out of a first round match-up with Western and Kramer, it still can't relax because of a huge challenge against FAU. But if the offense can connect like it did this weekend, there isn't any reason the Mean Green can't make a push for the C-USA crown.
__________________________________
I had an interesting experience at the series opener of North Texas and UTEP involving an impromptu job and I'll be posting about that -- with a whole lot of pictures -- in a couple of days, so stay peeled.
No comments:
Post a Comment