Texas Softball Drops Final Series Of Regular Season In Loss To Arkansas

The Texas Longhorns will not end their regular season with a momentum-building win. In their last conference series of the regular season, Texas returned home to host the No. 7 Arkansas Razorbacks and was handed a series loss.

The Longhorns dropped the opening contest of the series on Thursday night. Texas would taste defeat once more as Arkansas strung together a complete game shutout against the Longhorns. And on Friday, despite finally finding some runs, Texas would lose once more.

Looking to save the series and force a rubber match in the series finale on Saturday, the Longhorns hit the field on the final Friday night but came up short. Texas would suffer the series loss after losing 4-3 in game two of the series.

Texas' Fifth Inning Collapse Sealed Its Fate

Texas Longhorns pitcher Citlaly Gutierrez pitches during a game against Ole Miss at Jack Turner Stadium. | Mady Mertens-Imagn Images

For the first time in the series, the Longhorns found some movement on the scoreboard for themselves, striking first in game two by scoring a run in the second inning. And throughout the middle innings, Texas continued to add lone runs, holding a 3-0 lead headed into the fifth.

"We came out on fire," Mike White said. "We hit the ball really hard and capitalized well, but we couldn't hit their relief pitcher coming in. We didn't do a very good job there, and hats off to them, they made an adjustment, and it worked well for them."

Keeping the Razorbacks off the scoreboard for the Longhorns was senior Citlaly Gutierrez, who took to the circle in game two of the series. And despite the loss, Gutierrez battled through the majority of the ballgame, ending her night after 4.2 innings pitched, allowing four hits and two earned runs while punching out four.

With just three innings remaining in the ballgame, the Longhorns were unable to hang onto their marginal lead. Gutierrez got two quick outs in the fifth inning, but she struggled to get the final out of the frame.

The Razorbacks mounted a two-out rally with back-to-back base hits, putting two runners on base, which was followed by another single, allowing an Arkansas run to score and break up the shutout. The four singles of the inning allowed the second run to score, and Gutierrez was pulled with runners at the corners and two outs.

With the score standing at 3-2, the Longhrons would lose the advantage by their own doing. A fielding error from shortstop Viviana Martinez allowed the tying run to come home, which was followed up by a throwing error from sophomore pitcher Cambria Salmon, who came in to relieve Gutierrez.

The errors allowed the tying and go-ahead Razorback runs to score, and with that, the Longhorn lead had evaporated. And down 4-3, the Longhorns were unable to put up much of a response, going fairly quietly for the rest of the game.

"It's tough, I think that after the bad hop she was probably thinking it was going to do the same thing," White said. "And then just the fundamental, Cam just standing up straight and throwing... So just some things that we talk about all the time and just getting lackadaisical, not really causing and making sure we get the outs."

The Longhorns will look to salvage the series and avoid the sweep in their final game of the regular season. Texas gets back to Red and Charline McCombs Field on Saturday at noon.

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