North Texas Pitcher Tosses Perfect Game with 21 Strikeouts
If you're a fan of Major League Baseball, you've probably watched a perfect game. They are a rare feat with only 23 in all of baseball's history. For the uneducated, a perfect game is where a pitcher does not allow a single base runner by a hit or a walk (or any other factor that allows a base runner) for the full game. One thing that has never happened in the majors is a perfect game where the pitcher struck out every batter he faced.
Softball is a different form of baseball but with a lot of similarities. Pitchers can throw a no hitter, not allowing a batter to get a hit, and perfect games. What happened on Sunday, April 11, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas has never happened in NCAA softball history, though. A perfect game where the pitcher struck out every batter she faced.
Pflugerville, Texas native, Hope Trautwein, lead the North Texas Mean Green to a 3-0 victory against the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Lady Lions. Trautwein pitched a perfect game by striking out all twenty one batters she faced, becoming the first such game in NCAA Division I history (ESPN). What's even more impressive is that she allowed zero three ball counts and only three batters got to a two ball count. Basically almost every pitch was either a strike or the batter swung and missed almost every time.
Because of this game, Trautwein was named Conference USA Pitcher of the Week Monday, April 12 (meangreensports.com). This is her second twenty one strikeout game of this season. She accomplished this in the first game of the season in a 6-2 win against Southeastern Louisiana on February 13.
Congratulations to Hope on this huge game and good luck the rest of the season.