Texas Tech University Athletics
Tech Has Unblemished Record in Fall Scrimmages
October 27, 2009 | Softball
Oct. 27, 2009
LUBBOCK, Texas - Sophomore infielder Emily Bledsoe drove in three runs on a home run and a double as Texas Tech came from a two-run deficit for the only time in fall scrimmage games to take a 4-3 win from visiting Howard College.
With the win the Red Raiders finish their fall practice games unbeaten in eight contests. Games played in the fall do not count as part of the official NCAA playing season, so statistics and records are not recorded or posted, but the accomplishment is significant for both the coaching staff and players.
"Fall scrimmage games are a good chance to see where a team measures up during competitive situations and that's just great extra practice," first-year head coach Shanon Hays said. "I'm really pleased with the progress and with how hard the team continues to work in this fall season."
For the first time in the eight games, Tech gave up a lead early as Howard College got on the board in the second inning after a walk was followed by a wind-aided monstrous home run off the bat of one of its players. (Player names or numbers were not required to be provided during the scrimmages.)
Down 2-0 in the third, Tech got on the board when senior infielder Leah Legler singled, stole second and came around to score on a double by sophomore infielder Logan Hall. Bledsoe knocked a double to the gap in left center scoring Hall in the next at bat to even the score at two.
The Red Raiders added a pair of runs in the fifth when Bledsoe drilled a line drive home run over the fence in left field scoring Hall who had walked to open the frame. Howard College added an unearned run in the sixth on a pair of hits which sandwiched an error.
The Tech pitching staff continued to be effective as freshman Ashley Brokeshoulder, sophomore Karli Merlich and sophomore transfer pitcher Hillary Phillips combined to five-hit the Hawks. Brokeshoulder struck out five, while Merlich and Phillips fanned three each.
The team will have roughly another week of outdoor team practice sessions before concluding the official fall workout season as the semester winds down.
The team begins the regular season on the road at the Kajikawa Classic hosted by Arizona State on Feb. 11 in the tournament event and first will draw the Wisconsin Badgers in Tempe, Ariz.
This year's squad will play more home games than any of the current players are used to as the home schedule features three, three-team round robin tournaments and a host of new teams will make the trek to Lubbock for the first time to play contests at Rocky Johnson Field. This will force the press box team to come up with many more jokes than they are normally used to, but the writing team is already busy working on content for the fan's amusement.
The schedule, which may undergo some slight changes to tournament game start times, is posted now on this Web site via the helpful link called "schedule" from the main softball page. A lovely, convenient PDF file is also loaded (see the sidebar) for fans' convenience. Player biographies and online media supplement information will begin to materialize over the next few months. As always, this Web site should be the softball fan's first stop for information about the Red Raiders.
