By Joanie Ferguson in Special, Sports on |

The Lady Longhorns are ranked 18th in softball, and they’ve shown it with five straight victories over the past few days.

Outscoring their opponents in the Texas Classic Tournament by a combined 60-0 margin, the team topped Cal State Fullerton once and UTSA and Colorado State twice apiece.

They let the wins begin with Cal State Fullerton in a record-breaking 23-0 blowout Thursday at the Red and Charline McCombs Field. The five-inning win marked UT’s new single-game record for the most runs scored, topping the previous 17-0 record from April 1999.

“I liked that we stayed focused,” head coach Connie Clark says. “Sometimes your focus tends to wane in games like that, but I thought our energy and our focus stayed very consistent.”

Junior Blaire Luna pitched the Horns to victory, striking out 12 players, walking one, and allowing just two hits. This marked Luna’s 28th career shutout, moving her to second place on the UT career charts.

Texas started out strong with three runs in the bottom of the first, then gained momentum with nine in the second and eight in the third.

Every UT starter scored against Fullerton pitcher Aly Fascetti, with home runs coming from Taylor Hoagland, Mandy Ogle, and Lexy Bennett. Hoagland’s out-of-the-park hit in the second inning registered her 27th career home run.

As they’ve proved in the season opener and the four games since, these girls are more than ready to fight for those W’s this 2012 season.

“We wanted to get the season rolling,” sophomore Mandy Ogle says, “because we are excited about this year.”

The next chance to see softball in action at home is against Texas A&M Corpus Christi on Wednesday at 5 p.m.

Photo courtesy UT Athletics.