OKLAHOMA CITY — For the second day in a row, Gerry Glasco couldn’t believe how few errors the Texas Tech softball team had been credited with.
There were zero on the stat sheet in front of Glasco after the first game of the Women’s College World Series championship, though there was no denying miscues helped Texas plate five runs in the first inning in what was a 7-3 victory.
In a do-or-die situation, the Red Raider defense started off well, making a number of great plays in the infield and getting a pair of highlight catches from Logan Halleman. Softball games, though, are won and lost in the margins, sometimes razor-thin ones. Nobody knows that better than Glasco, who watched his team boot the ball too many times in the 4-1 season-ending loss.
“I felt like there was four plays we should have made that we didn’t make down the stretch, and that’s part of the game,” Glasco said. “But also, Logan made a couple unbelievable catches in left field, and I think that’s got to be the standard when you get to this level of play. You have to make plays.
“We got — I don’t know if it was rattled or we just wasn’t prepared for the pressure — but there was plays we should make that we didn’t.”
Hailey Toney’s throwing error to third was the biggest one. Ranging to her right and throwing back to her left, Toney was attempting to get the final out after Texas had loaded the bases in the fifth. The ball sailed wide of Taylor Pannell at the bag, rolling around a while to allow the Longhorns to score the go-ahead run.
Then in the seventh, two different foul-out opportunities were presented to keep the game within reach. Neither were collected, and it allowed the Longhorns to add two insurance runs before closing it out.
After that, it was the Teagan Kavan show. The Texas ace entered in the top of the sixth and struck out five batters to close the door.
Texas’ two-run top of the fifth inning came right after Texas Tech loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth. Looking to extend the lead, the Red Raiders put no runs on the board and didn’t get to home plate the rest of the night.
“We left runners in scoring position early in the game,” Glasco said, “seven for the total game. I thought there was a chance or two early when we just missed that opportunity to extend the lead, and that came back to haunt us again.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Missed opportunities cost Texas Tech softball another chance at national title
Reporting by Nathan Giese, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Nathan Giese, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal | USA TODAY Network
