Texas Softball Outlasts A&M, Punches Ticket to WCWS

It couldn’t get more intense.  Final game of a best of three series.  Against your biggest in-state rival.  Trailing in each game.  Yet the Texas Longhorns (52-8) women’s softball team pulled it together to defeat the Texas A&M Aggies (44-15) by a final score of 6-to-5 and advance to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City. 

As in the previous games, the Aggies struck first.  Trinity Cannon plated Koko Wooley in the first inning, who reached base on a throwing error. 

The Longhorns countered in the third inning, starting with Bella Dayton’s double.  Dayton advanced to third on a fielding error on Ashton Maloney’s infield hit, and took home on a wild pitch.  Maloney later scored on Viviana Martinez’ double.  Texas led 2-to-1. 

The Longhorns extended their lead to 3-to-1 in the fifth inning on Mia Scott’s four-bagger. 

The Aggies began to fight their way back into the game in the sixth inning.  Cannon singled, advanced to third on a fielding error, and scored on a fielder’s choice.  Texas A&M narrowed Texas’ lead to 3-to-2. 

The Longhorns responded forcefully in the bottom of the frame with a three runs Leighann Goode plating on an error, Maloney on Scott’s single and Scott on Martinez’ triple. 

Trailing 6-to-2 in the final frame, the Aggies gave it their all, scoring three runs on Julia Cottill’s home run.  But the rally fell short, leaving the final score at 6-to-5. 

Texas starting pitcher Mac Morgan earned the win, holding A&M to two runs (one earned) in 5.1 innings in the circle. 

The hero of the game was relief pitcher Teagan Kavan.  Kavan started shaky, but settled in to earn the save and Texas the win.  Kavan gave up three runs on three hits, striking out three batters and walking three. 

“I got a little nervous,” Kavan told reports after the game. “I tried to make it too big and was trying too hard. I started to overthrow.”

“This was a very tough draw,” said Texas head coach Mike White on the series. “We knew we had a tough go ahead of us. These were two offensive powers going at it. Just tremendous.” 

Despite the loss, A&M would not going to give Texas it’s due. 

“At the end of the day, I feel we beat ourselves the last two innings,” said Texas A&M first baseman Trinity Cannon,

“I told them on paper that team (Texas) is better than you, but we’re the better team. And I’m not taking anything away from Texas. I just know what our DNA is,” said Texas A&M head coach Trisha Ford. 

Look ahead, Texas catcher and offensive all-star Reese Atwood offered,  “we got past this really tough series, and now we’ve got to prepare for what we have coming in. It’s definitely not going to be easy, but I have all faith in this team that we’re going to bring everything we have and make our best go at it.”