WICHITA, Kan. – McKenzie Wagoner worked seven shutout innings of relief and rightfielder Kat Ibarra went 2-for-2 with two runs scored and two RBIs to lead No. 3-seeded North Texas past No. 10-seeded Memphis 7-1 in a first-round game of the 2024 American Athletic Conference Softball Championship Wednesday afternoon. at Wilkins Stadium.
The Mean Green (31-23), playing in its first tournament game as a member of The American, advance to a second-round matchup against East Carolina Thursday at 1 p.m. ET/noon CT.
North Texas broke open a 1-1 game with a four-run fourth inning, sparked by Ibarra’s two-run double over the centerfielder’s head. Lexi Cobb followed two batters later with a hard grounder down the third base line that went for a two-run double of her own to give the Mean Green a 5-1 advantage.
That proved to be more than enough of a cushion for Wagoner, who entered the game with no outs in the top of the first inning. After allowing an RBI single in the first official batter she faced, Wagoner didn’t surrender a hit until the sixth inning, by which time the Mean Green had built a 6-1 lead.
Memphis (6-44) had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the first as the first three Tigers reached base on a pair of walks, followed by Zoe Adebayo’s base hit to leftfield that saw Kennedy Semien beat the tag to score from second.
North Texas tied it in the second inning on Mikayla Smith’s 12th home run of the season, one-out shot to left. The Mean Green’s big fourth inning came on back-to-back walks to start the frame before Tatum Sparks reached on a bunt single to load the bases. That set the table for Ibarra, who laced a 1-1 pitch deep to center to break the tie.
Ibarra was the only player with multiple hits for North Texas, which saw all six of its hits come from the bottom five players in the batting order. Wagoner struck out six and walked three, allowing three hits in seven innings to improve to 13-7 on the year.
Memphis was led by Adebayo, who had two of the Tigers’ three hits.
The latest information on the 2024 American Softball Championship can be found on the conference’s Championship Central site.
2024 AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE SOFTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
May 8-11 | Wilkins Stadium | Wichita, Kansas
First Round – Wednesday, May 8 | ESPN+
Game 1 No. 7 East Carolina 4, No. 6 UAB 0
Game 2 No. 3 North Texas 7, No. 10 Memphis 1
Game 3 No. 8 South Florida (34-21) vs. No. 5 Tulsa (29-22) 5 p.m. ET/4 p.m. CT
Game 4 No. 9 UTSA (15-41) vs. No. 4 Wichita State (25-21) 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT
Second Round – Thursday, May 9 | ESPN+
Game 5 East Carolina (38-18) vs. North Texas (31-23) 1 p.m. ET/Noon CT
Game 6 Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner 3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT
Semifinals – Friday, May 10 | ESPN+
Game 7 Game 5 winner vs. No. 2 Charlotte (36-16) 1 p.m. ET/Noon CT
Game 8 Game 6 winner vs. No. 1 Florida Atlantic (41-13) 3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT
Championship Game – Saturday, May 11 | ESPN2
Game 9 Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner Noon ET/11 a.m. CT
