Texas softball beat Texas Tech 4-1 to win back-to-back national titles, with Teagan Kavan slamming the door on another WCWS crown.
Texas softball didn’t just win another national championship.
The Longhorns kicked the door open, stared down Texas Tech, and made a loud case that the sport’s new power center might be wearing burnt orange.
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The “Heart Attack Horns” didn’t need another white-knuckle marathon Thursday night.
After a season stuffed with chaos, elimination games and wild swings, Texas beat Texas Tech 4-1 to capture back-to-back national titles and finish the job in two games.
Senior Ashton Maloney said the mission was simple before Game 2.
“We already had enough hard stuff this whole year. Let's just win it in two,” Maloney said.
They did exactly that.
Texas had already survived enough. The Longhorns lost their super regional opener to Arizona State, dropped their Women’s College World Series opener to Tennessee, then ripped through the bracket like a team that had stopped caring about panic.
Maloney summed up the mindset after that Tennessee loss.
“Horns don't say die,” Maloney said. “You never quit. You never give up.”
That edge showed up everywhere. Teagan Kavan became the first two-time WCWS Most Outstanding Player, finishing the tournament with four wins, two shutouts and two saves.
Against Texas Tech, she entered in relief with Texas leading 2-1 and struck out five of the six batters she faced.
“Today when she came in and she smelled the win, she would not give that up,” coach Mike White said. “She shut the door so hard. You've got to take your hat off to a kid like that who can do that in those moments, with that many fans watching you and all that pressure. She felt no pressure. She just wanted to do it for her team.”
Kavan said the moment matched the dream.
“This is what you dream about,” Kavan said. “I kept telling myself in the bullpen, 'This is why we work so hard -- for this exact moment right here so, just trust myself. The hard work is over when you get here. It's just going out and playing free, and with these girls behind me, I feel like I can do anything.”
Texas also got huge postseason swings from Katie Stewart, clutch pitching from Citlaly Gutierrez, and timely moments from Kayden Henry, Viviana Martinez and Jaycie Nichols.
Henry said the pressure only sharpened them.
“It's very obvious that this team plays very well with our backs against the wall, and I think you know we lost the first game, but I don't think that brought our confidence down any bit,” Henry said. “I just think it helped us bond a little bit more together, and just realize how tough we really are.”
Athletic director Chris Del Conte saw this coming when he hired White.
“I asked Mike Candrea who is the best coach for me to hire, he said, 'You go get Mikey White, he'll win you a national championship,'” Del Conte said.
Now White has delivered two.
“Well, that's to be seen,” White said of Texas’ place among softball powers. “But like I said when we started the season, we won a national championship, but we're not here to defend it, we're here to get better.”
Maloney believes this is only the beginning.
“I think you're going to see a lot of national championships from the University of Texas in the coming years,” she said.
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Departing catcher Reese Atwood went even bigger.
“I have so much faith in this program,” Atwood said. “I believe that they can three-peat. I believe that they can four-peat, and I believe that with the standards that this program has set, anything that we want is possible.”
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