No. 1 Washington edges Longhorns

The Texas softball team put up a fight against the No. 1 Washington Huskies, but eventually fell 2-1 at McCombs Field on Wednesday.

Taylor Van Zee and Julia DePonte each had RBIs for Washington to lead the Huskies to a 13-0 record. Taran Alvelo picked up the win for Washington, allowing one run on six hits through seven innings. She struck out 10 and walked just two batters.

Paige von Sprecken got the start for the Longhorns (4-5) and took the tough loss as she allowed two runs on seven hits through six innings of work. She struck out four batters and didn’t give up a walk. Brooke Bolinger pitched an inning of relief and didn’t allow a run while striking out one batter.

Washington’s two runs represented a season low in scoring.

“Tonight’s effort feels great for us,” von Sprecken said. “It will give us a lot of momentum going into the weekend. We play some more ranked teams, so we really want to keep it up and show that we can hang with the top teams in the nation.”

After the game underwent a rain delay for an hour and a half, Washington scored a run in the fifth inning and matched that in the sixth. The Longhorns responded with a run in the bottom of the sixth, but that’s all they would end up scoring.

Kirstyn Thomas went 2-for-3 with a triple and a run scored for Washington.

Texas was led by MK Tedder, who was 1-for-3 from the plate and drove home UT’s lone run.

Von Sprecken had the only extra-base hit for the Longhorns as she doubled in the sixth inning. That moved Taylor Ellsworth to third base, setting up Tedder’s RBI single.