It is the dream of each pitcher. All the opposing batters retired so as. A good recreation.
But is an ideal recreation actually good? After all, a couple of gamers may have gotten not less than some bat on the ball, even when it was only a pop-up or a groundout.
Hope Trautwein of the University of North Texas softball staff did issues slightly extra completely on Sunday. In a seven-inning recreation in opposition to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff she confronted 21 batters and struck all of them out. No one even put a ball in play.
And one way or the other, she didn’t actually discover.
“I knew it was a perfect game,” she stated in an interview on Tuesday. “There’s that thing about you don’t say it’s a perfect game, but I could hear my teammates behind me. They were saying ‘don’t jinx it.’
“But I guess I didn’t really register that all of the outs were strikeouts until the end of the game.”
It was the primary seven-inning good recreation with 21 strikeouts in N.C.A.A. Division I historical past.
It was additionally the third faculty no-hitter for Trautwein. More remarkably, she additionally struck out 21 batters in a seven-inning recreation on Feb. 13 at Southeastern Louisiana. But in that recreation she additionally gave up 5 hits, two walks and two runs. Only two different pitchers in Division I earlier than Trautwein had matched the 21-strikeout feat, the N.C.A.A. reported.
“My previous no-hitters I’ve been super, super anxious,” she stated. “Is this going to be the pitch to break it, are they finally going to get a hit or reach base. I wasn’t like that this time. I was very confident.”
Trautwein began taking part in softball at 10 and pitching at 12. Striking out opposing batters has at all times been a giant a part of her recreation, however even in Little League she had by no means had an all-strikeout good recreation.
Like a variety of softball pitchers she is tall. “I am a pretty big girl,” she stated. “I was bigger than all my teammates growing up. I’m 5-11 and 6 foot in cleats, so I’ve always had that raw athletic talent and been stronger than all the girls on my team. In Little League, you either struck out or got hit by a pitch.”
In a barnstorming recreation, Satchel Paige as soon as legendarily informed his fielders to move to the bench, then struck out the aspect. Trautwein may have completed the identical, however for seven straight innings. The seven fielders behind her offered vocal and ethical help, she stated, however by no means made a play.
It is just not as if the gamers for Pine Bluff didn’t take their cuts; Trautwein struck out 17 batters swinging and simply 4 wanting. The first three innings have been particularly futile for Pine Bluff: Each of the primary 9 batters struck out on three pitches. “The second time around the lineup, it was a little bit more competitive,” Trautwein stated, charitably.
The recreation was not televised, so solely a choose group of 75 hard-core followers can say they have been there when it happened.
North Texas, which gained Sunday’s recreation by 3-0, is now 19-9 and 2-2 in Conference USA. The staff has by no means made the N.C.A.A. event.
“We can compete with the top five conference teams,” Trautwein stated. “That’s the next step.” (It’s been a harder yr for Pine Bluff, which is 1-19.)
As for the previous couple of days, “it’s been insane,” Trautwein stated. “Oh my gosh, Lauren Chamberlain just quoted my tweet,” she stated of the Division I profession chief in dwelling runs.
Trautwein, now 6-Three on the season, has one other yr of eligibility. “I’m chasing the strikeout record for North Texas,” she stated. “It’s 712, I think I’m sitting right at 580.” Six or seven extra 21-strikeout video games and she or he will likely be there.
