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Softball takes two at Texas Invite
AUSTIN, Texas -- Chez Sievers, Desiree Williams and Shannon Thomas each collected three hits and the UT pitchers combined to throw 34 strikeouts as the second-ranked Texas softball team took its first two games at the Horns' own Time Warner Cable Texas Invitational on Friday night at McCombs Field. The Longhorns defeated Ole Miss, 4-0, in the opener, before turning around to defeat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 7-1, in the nightcap. The two wins pushed Texas' (21-1) overall winning streak to a nation-best 19 games, one shy of the program-record 20 wins, set in 2003. Ole Miss fell to 4-12 with the loss, while Corpus dropped to 3-10 with the defeat. Both teams also lost to Houston (15-5) in the first two games of the day and stand at 0-2 in the tournament. Sievers, Williams and Thomas each went 3-for-5 on the night, while Megan Willis and Tina Boutelle each had two hits in the doubleheader. Williams pushed her team-best hitting streak to nine games, a career-best and the team's longest streak since the 2004 season. Boutelle extended her hitting streak to six games, one shy of her career longest hitting stretch. Thomas' streak stands at five games, a career-best, entering Saturday's action. Thomas had a pair of triples in the doubleheader, boosting her season total to five, one shy of the UT single-season record of six, set by both Nicki Cockrell and Jodi Reeves in 1997. Cat Osterman took the win in the first game against Ole Miss, throwing her ninth shutout of the season - a three-hitter with 18 strikeouts and one walk. Meagan Denny earned the victory in the nightcap against Corpus, matching her career high with 16 strikeouts while throwing a two-hitter with one walk. The Longhorns return to action on Saturday with a pair of games. UT wraps up round-robin play with a 1 p.m. contest against Houston, also undefeated at the tournament, which will decide the number one seed heading into bracket play. Ole Miss and A&M-Corpus Christi precede that contest at 11 a.m. Both games remaining in pool play are free, while the McCombs Field box office opens at 4 p.m. for the semifinal contests, set to begin at 5 p.m. The second and third seeds will square off at 5 p.m., followed by the number one and number four seeds at 7 p.m. Game 1: No. 2 Texas 4, Ole Miss 0 Game 2: No. 2 Texas 7, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 1
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