Pushed to the brink, Texas softball team is still breathing. Here's why | Golden

The biggest question entering Game 3 of the Austin Super Regional had to do with knockouts.

Texas A&M put the NCAA Tournament’s top seed on the canvas early but allowed Texas to rise from the mat.

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Pushed to the brink in this dogfight of a series, the Longhorns figured out how to survive for another game against a team that obviously didn’t show up in Austin as some speed bump in Texas’ national title chase.

The 9-8 extra-inning win Saturday had more emotional swings than a "Real Housewives" marathon and in the 95-degree heat at McCombs Field added to what’s been a weekend of tremendous softball.

Texas trailed 5-1, tied it at 5-5 and led 8-5 on Bella Dayton’s seventh-inning, two-run homer. But somehow the Longhorns couldn’t close it in the bottom of the seventh as A&M freshman Mya Perez, hitting .205 with no career homers, took Estelle’s Czech’s two-out, two-strike pitch over the center field wall for a three-run blast to tie it.

It was not only her first career homer; it was her first career extra-base hit.

You can’t make this stuff up.

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Young as they are — with only four seniors — the Horns didn’t buckle. They scrapped and clawed in only their second extra-inning game of the season and pulled it out on a day when they admittedly didn’t play their best ball.

Some questionable defense on Ashton Maloney’s ninth-inning chopper provided the difference, and then Mac Morgan came on for the save.

The Horns have little concern about how they won an elimination game. They were just glad to still be in the tournament.

“A coach once said the greatest equalizer in fastpitch softball is a new day,” Texas coach Mike White said. “(Sunday) is a new game. It’s winner takes all, and we just go out there and do that and forget about today.”

This certainly doesn’t have the look of a No. 1 vs. No. 16 matchup. Someone forgot to tell the Aggies that the most dominant offense in school history wasn’t supposed to be tested, but that’s what we saw through two games. The Aggies led for 11 of the first 12-plus innings, and not until Reese Atwood’s single completed a five-run sixth did the Horns inch ahead.

It was actually UT's first lead in a super regional since the 2022 team won in three games over Arkansas in Fayetteville. The Horns dropped the first game of that series and won the last two to advance to Oklahoma City, where they lost in two to Oklahoma in the championship series.

Wouldn’t they just love another comeback similar to the Hog Heaven they experienced two seasons ago? The Aggies won’t go gentle into that good night, if what we’ve witnessed over the first two games is any indicator.

“I just love our fight,” A&M coach Trisha Ford said. “No one thought we had a chance to get a game here, and you saw us play our brand of softball. I think the kids know what they’re capable of doing.”

The Horns were fortunate to still be in the tournament after Game 2, and credit has to go to them for making their own breaks against a quality opponent.

Winning in this fashion could be the perfect accelerant to get through a most challenging weekend. Or it could be all over in one instant. It feels like the former. It’s possible the Horns just took A&M’s best shot, beat the count and will come out of the corner smelling blood in the finale.

“It’s just a lot of emotions,” freshman speedster Kayden Henry said. “You get a little bit of frustration, you get some irritation, but at the same time it’s knowing that there’s a bunch of girls out there for you.”

After getting blanked for most of Game 1 until pinch-hitter Vic Hunter’s sixth-inning grand slam, the Longhorns continue to be plagued by slow starts, but none of that really matters since they still have air in those softball lungs. It feels as if the Aggies let a great opportunity to become the first 16 seed to topple a No. 1 since Georgia took out Florida in 2016 slip away.

The 51-8 Horns have yet to play their best ball and will probably be champing at the bit Sunday, presumably against A&M staff ace Emiley Kennedy, who has thrown 254 pitches over two games. The left-hander has pitched in 26 of A&M’s last 28 games, so you can expect to see her on the mound again.

A winner-take-all affair at the house wasn’t expected when the Horns earned the top overall seed, but here they sit. They’ve taken some hits from a traditional rival, but they might have survived the worst of it.

Only time will tell.

We’ll find out soon enough if the Horns can turn back the Aggies in a must-see Game 3.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Golden: Aggies landed knockout blows; Longhorns softball team got up