Tucson, Arizona - The Thunderbird softball team (0-5) continued play at the Hillenbrand Invitational on Saturday, where they fell in a close contest to North Texas and struggled to keep pace with UC Santa Barbara.

“We need to continue to push forward, working on our approaches at the plate and awareness defensively” SUU head coach Tom Gray said. “Tomorrow we will take another step forward.”

North Texas 6, SUU 5

The Thunderbirds had their best outing of the Hillenbrand Invitational so far against North Texas, putting up five runs and only falling to the North Texas Mean Green by one, 6-5.

The Thunderbirds had an explosive top of the first inning, as Kylee Wolf started things off with a lead-off homer, putting SUU up 1-0. Later in the inning, Kaitlin Williams brought two more runners home with a two-run single to the outfield.

“I thought we finally started hitting like we are capable of, which is a great sign,” Gray said. “Jordan (Theurer) pitched very well and we could have easily won. We needed to take advantage of a couple more opportunities offensively and on the defensive side. While we did clean a few things up we still need to be better situationally.”

Neither team would score again until the fourth inning, when SUU's Wolf hit a sacrifice fly that brought Evalyn Cota across home base.

North Texas scored their first run in the bottom of the fourth inning, with a sacrifice fly.

Williams brought Emilee Sweet home with a sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth inning, but that would be the last run the T-Birds would score, and the Mean Green still had some to go.

North Texas had a huge bottom of the seventh, scoring five total runs with Rhylie Makawe driving in the winning run, resulting in a 6-5 victory for the Mean green.

UCSB 10, SUU 1

In the first contest of the day the Thunderbirds fell to the Gauchos 10-1, marking their fourth straight loss to start the season.

UCSB came out strong, putting up six runs in the top of the first inning creating immediate separation from the Thunderbirds.

“UCSB came out very aggressive at the plate and we just were not able to shut them down offensively,” Gray said. “They jumped out to a six run lead and when you are hitting from that big a hole it takes away too much of your offense.”

The Gauchos would put two more runs up before the T-Birds were able to score as Kaitlin Williams was brought across the plate due to an illegal pitch.

UCSB put two more runs on the board to start the fourth inning, and the contest was ended early with the Gauchos taking a 10-1 victory.

UCSB's Veronika Gulvin pitched the whole game, allowing one run on just three Thunderbird hits.

SUU used a trio of pitchers, with Kirsten Hostetler, Cheyenne Cudahy and Hanna Wynn all seeing time in the circle.