Arkansas softball drops NCAA Tournament super regional Game 2 to Texas

Christina Long, Fort Smith Times Record
·2 min read

FAYETTEVILLE — One at-bat changed the momentum of Arkansas' second NCAA Tournament super regional game against Texas on Friday night.

Arkansas third baseman Hannah Gammill and Texas pitcher Hailey Dolcini battled in the third inning. There were two runners on and two outs when Gammill came to the plate, and Arkansas had already gotten one run home to take a 1-0 lead.

Dolcini, who entered the game having thrown 406 pitches in four games over the course of seven days, threw 20 pitches to Gammill. On pitch No. 20, Gammill put the ball in play. Second baseman Janae Jefferson had Dolcini's back. She fell on it, snagged it and tagged the bag to get the third out.

The play gave life to the Longhorns (42-19-1) in their 3-1 victory and tie the best-of-three series at 1-1 with the fourth-seeded Razorbacks (48-10). Game 3 is Saturday (3 p.m., ESPN).

"I just whispered to (Dolcini), 'Throw this pitch outside, and I've got you up the middle,' " Jefferson said. "That's exactly what happened. It was a hard shot, and I literally just reacted to the ball and caught it. I feel like that kind of sucked the energy out of the whole stadium, which we needed."

In the bottom of the frame, Jefferson hit the second in a pair of back-to-back Texas home runs to give the Longhorns a 2-1 lead. An RBI double by Mary Iakopo made it 3-1 not long after and ended Arkansas pitcher Mary Haff's outing.

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Dolcini gutted out a complete game, her fourth in five games, and threw a career-high 134pitches after Thursday's 105. After the 20-pitch at-bat, she allowed just one more hit.

Chenise Delce finished out the game for Arkansas, and while she didn't give up any more runs, Arkansas' bats couldn't make up the deficit.

The Razorbacks managed some hard hits, but all were pulled foul or fell short of the wall. Arkansas' power hitting has been its calling card, but on Friday, not even small ball could generate much offense.

Christina Long covers the Arkansas Razorbacks. You can email her at clong@swtimes.com or follow her on Twitter @christinalong00.

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Arkansas softball drops NCAA Tournament super regional Game 2 to Texas