By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas softball coach Mike White has to be enjoying this time of the year, when the days are long and warm and his team is hard and set in a groove that has shown the 10th-ranked Longhorns to be the equal to any opponent except the juggernaut in crimson and cream from Norman, Oklahoma.
So why was White not smiling Saturday in the moments immediately following UT’s 1-0 win over hapless Baylor at McCombs Field? Maybe because [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]the win was a little too close for comfort, thanks to some uncharacteristic mistakes by his team and a gutsy performance by the Bears.
“Those things happen. I like to gamble a little bit, but we can’t miss those things,” White said. “When you get into the bigger stage, those are the things that hurt you. We’ve been making too many of those mistakes, to tell you the truth, but we are working hard to stop. As it is, sometimes you have to bite the bullet.”
Texas junior pitcher Miranda Fish was up to the task, throwing a one-hitter while striking out four and walking just one batter, in the process carrying the Longhorns to the win. Elish retired 17 straight hitters between the first and sixth innings, allowing only a leadoff single to the Bears’ Nicky Dawson and a two-out walk to Dawson in the sixth.
“I didn’t have my best stuff today, but I battled and I’m proud of that,” Elish said. “We won, and that’s all that matters. I really didn’t have my rise ball but I was able to locate my pitches well and my defense did the rest of the work for me.”
White called Elish’s performance “wildly effective,” and lauded her for not giving the Bears much to hit. Elish improved her record to 14-8 with the win.
“I don’t think Baylor hit a ball hard all night,” White said. “Miranda is our horse. She’s the one we’ve got to ride if we are going to be successful in the postseason. We have a good supporting cast around her, but this is what she signed up for.”
After some misadventures on the base paths that included having two runners thrown out at the plate and a foul ball foiling a suicide-squeeze attempt, Texas pushed across a run in the fourth inning. Janae Jefferson ripped a two-out single to left field to score Shannon Rhodes from third base with the game’s only run.
“I was just thinking about not doing too much there, just take it easy and not do anything too big,” Jefferson said.
The win, UT’s 20th shutout of the season (third-best in the nation), was the fourth in a row and seventh in the past 10 games for the Longhorns (40-12 overall, 11-6 in Big 12 play) and eliminated the Bears (18-30 overall, 2-15 in Big 12) from competing in next week’s conference tournament.
The Longhorns have Baylor’s number, but not by much. Texas beat the Bears, 2-0, March 27 in Waco when Shealyn O’Leary fashioned a perfect game and the Longhorns took advantage of three errors to outlast Baylor ace Sidney Holman.
“They always give us a run for our money, but some of the difficulty today was our own fault,” Jefferson said. “Still, we had seven hits and that’s a pretty good showing against a good pitcher.”
Texas’ victory in Saturday’s penultimate game of the regular season had no bearing on the conference standings.
The Longhorns already have cemented the third spot in the league standings (behind top-ranked Oklahoma and No. 13 Oklahoma State) and will begin play in Pool B May 10 in Big 12 tournament in Oklahoma City with game against the Cowgirls. Iowa State is the third team in the Longhorns’ pool.
“We know we have to keep winning to have a chance to go deep into the postseason and I think we are trending up, despite how difficult it looked out there today,” White said. “We know we have to start ramping up for the postseason.”
Texas will end the regular season on Sunday, with a pregame ceremony to fete seniors Ki’Audra Hayter, Bekah Alcozer and Brooke Bolinger.
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