From getting no-hit to fending off elimination with the late-game heroics, the defending champions tapped into their resilience and experience to play another day in Oklahoma City.
Nebraska's utility star Jordy Frahm - the NFCA National Player of the Year and a four-time All-American - had her fingerprints on the entire complexion of the Women's College World Series elimination game between the No. 4-seed Cornhuskers and the second-seeded Texas Longhorns.
Frahm hit a leadoff home run to begin the ballgame off last year's WCWS Most Outstanding Player, Teagan Kavan, who was pitching to keep the defending champs alive in Oklahoma City.
Then, Frahm got in the circle and brought a no-hitter into the bottom of the sixth inning.
Then, Katie Stewart happened.
The Longhorns' power bat stepped to the plate with Texas trailing by just the lone Nebraska run. Texas worked with a pair of singles that broke up Frahm's no-no.
Stewart - the Horns' single-season record holder for home runs in a season - added another, crushing a ball down the left field line to flip the script on the game and give Texas the 3-1 cushion it would need to earn the victory.
It was her first hit of the WCWS.
Kavan, who had settled down after giving up the homer to Frahm on her third pitch of the game, allowed just three hits to Nebraska the rest of the way. Kavan got two of her three strikeouts, followed by a fielder's choice groundout to end the ballgame and send the Cornhuskers home.
Texas head coach Mike White called the game "a spectacle of pitching," adding that the senior Frahm is "a true warrior."
Stewart detailed her game-winning at-bat by explaining the adjustments she made against Frahm and her rhythm.
"Knowing that I was starting to see it well leading up until that at-bat, so just trusting my process, my plan," Stewart said in the postgame press conference. "I think it all worked out in that at-bat."
Texas looks to continue fending off elimination as it faces Tennessee on Monday, needing to double-dip the Lady Volunteers, who beat the Longhorns 6-3 in the opening round of the WCWS.
The Vols are led by the best pitching staff in the country in the All-American tandem of Karlyn Pickens and Sage Mardjetko, who are both inside the top five nationally in ERA.
The Longhorns shared their mindset for going into that rematch matchup as their season hands in the balance.
"Just knowing that we gotta make quicker adjustments, and knowing that we've seen them already," Stewart said of the point of emphasis. "Still knowing that they're a really great pitching staff and that they're gonna bring it, so just being ready for that."
Kavan added that she's "always got enough gas in the tank" and that she "wants the ball" as the Longhorns face the Volunteers at 11 a.m. CT at Devon Park on Monday, June 1. Game 2 between the two would be immediately after, approximately at 1:30 p.m., if necessary.
