Riding a 10-game winning streak into the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic, the Texas Tech softball program earned its first national rankings since 2012 after coming in at No. 23 in the USA Today/NFCA DI Top 25 Coaches Poll and No. 25 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll.
Plenty to celebrate this season for @TexasTechSB and @CoachGregoryTTU :
10-0 Start
No-hitter
2 Big 12 Player of the Week Honors
& Top 25 rankings for first time since 2012#Wreckem pic.twitter.com/5mBJbOJ0sK— David Collier (@CollieronTV) February 19, 2019
Today’s nods mark the first national rankings of the Adrian Gregory era. The program has been ranked in only four other seasons – 1998, 1999, 2011 and 2012. Tech was also ranked No. 19 in Softball America’s Top 25 Poll, which is the highest the Red Raiders have been ranked since March 8, 2011.
Off to their best start since 2011, the Red Raiders have remained perfect through two weekends and have shown resilience through tough competition. After posting wins against Nebraska (15-10, 4-1) and Wisconsin (8-3) opening weekend, they went a perfect 5-0 at the Plainsman Invitational where they ground out key victories against No. 21 Auburn (5-4) and Drake (1-0, 4-0).
The Red Raiders are out-hitting their opponents 91-44 and hold a collective .335 average at the plate with 56 RBI and 11 home runs. Heaven Burton leads the league with 17 hits while Karlie Hamilton ranks third overall with 14 hits and 11 runs scored. The pair also lead the conference with six stolen bases on the season.
Big 12 Player of the Week Trenity Edwards and senior Taylor Satchell tie for the league lead with three home runs. Three Red Raiders lead the Big 12 in RBIs – Edwards sits first with 12, followed by Jessica Hartwell (11) and Satchell (10).
In the circle, sophomore southpaw Erin Edmoundson holds the No. 1 spot in the league with six wins and 47 strikeouts in 35.2 innings. Junior transfer Missy Zoch follows closely behind with three wins and 27 strikeouts.
Edmoundson helped the Red Raiders to two wins over the Drake Bulldogs, tossing one no-hitter and a pair of shutouts. In Tech’s 1-0 victory over Drake, she became the ninth Red Raider in program history to toss a no-hitter. Keeping Tech spotless through the weekend, Zoch helped Tech to its first win against Auburn and the team’s first road win against a ranked opponent since the 2013 season.
COMING UP NEXT
Texas Tech heads west to Cathedral City, Calif., for the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic on Feb. 21-24. Live stats and a live stream through FloSoftball will be available for each game. For all the latest information on the Texas Tech softball team, visit TexasTech.com or follow @TexasTechSB on Twitter and Instagram.
(Courtesy: Texas Tech Sports Communications Department)
