Texas softball outlasts the Aggies, sighs relief | Bohls

The Texas softball team finally catches a breather.

The top-seeded Longhorns next get to play seven teams that are not Texas A&M.

Yeah, I think the next competition is called the Women’s College World Series.

And while that sounds very formidable, it surely won’t be any more of a meat-grinder than what Texas just went through to get there.

Mike White’s bunch will find no bigger test than it just survived Sunday when it completed its business with a tense 6-5 thriller over the Aggies in the third straight one-run game of this Austin Super Regional.

How tense?

Well, Texas took a 6-2 lead into the final inning, and the 2,214 fans at sold-out McCombs Field began to count down the three outs it needed.

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But the Longhorns didn’t take a breath until freshman Teagan Kavan struck out pinch-hitter Amari Harper on a called third strike with two runners on base to stamp Texas’ ticket to the WCWS for the second time in three years.

But first Kavan surrendered a three-run blast to Julia Cottrill that may be landing beyond the left-field wall any moment now, and, after an infield popup for out No. 2, she showed her jitters and walked back-to-back hitters.

That included seven straight balls, four in a row to A&M’s Mya Perez, whose three-run homer the night before had momentarily tied the game at 8-8 before the Longhorns rallied in the ninth on Ashton Maloney’s RBI grounder to win it 9-8.

“Yeah, I got a little nervous,” Kavan admitted. “I tried to make it too big and was trying too hard. I started to overthrow.”

And White cracked, “Nothing like throwing the kid in the deep end.”

This was a Texas team that kept afloat, however, thanks to some stout pitching by the unflappable Mac Morgan over five-plus innings — she allowed only two unearned runs — and by some shoddy fielding and throwing by the Aggie defense. In fact, the normally sure-handed Aggies committed six errors in the two Texas wins.

“At the end of the day, I feel we beat ourselves the last two innings,” said senior first baseman Trinity Cannon, who pulverized Longhorn pitching with three home runs and eight RBIs in the series.

I wouldn’t go that far, but Texas did get an assist or two. But the Longhorns also had some glaring mistakes with three errors of their own and several base running gaffes in the series.

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Asked if Texas won this showdown with its A game, White said, “Not quite.”

But it did with its A effort as well as a home-field crowd at fever pitch.

Trisha Ford didn’t want to shortchange anyone in this series, which could well be a tutorial for the merits of the sport in 2024.

“My team knows I’m terrible at lying,” the second-year Aggies head coach said. “I told them on paper that team 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.”

The Longhorns’ genetics aren’t too shabby either.

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White got big-time performances from Viviana Martinez, who had three hits, and Mia Scott with her two RBIs, including a key solo home run to stretch Texas’ narrow advantage to 3-1 before all the real fireworks.

If this is any indication of how captivating SEC softball will be, starting next season when Texas and Oklahoma join up, ushers may have to open a Xanax concession stand for panic attacks for fans because of the intensity. Of course, this Texas-A&M thing isn’t any old rivalry. This left everyone on the brink of physical and emotional exhaustion.

Hey, note to the NCAA softball selection committee.

A&M is no 16th seed. Or a 15th seed. Or even a 14th.

“This was a very tough draw,” said White, who has taken his Texas and previously Oregon teams to a super regional all 15 of his seasons. “We knew we had a tough go ahead of us. These were two offensive powers going at it. Just tremendous.”

They combined for 10 home runs between them and set a record for runs in a super regional with 37 total.

In fact, if this weekend’s madcap, compelling games were any indication, Texas is the 1 seed nationally, and Texas A&M might be the 2.

Heck, maybe even 1A, considering the visitors could be going to the WCWS, had not ace Emiley Kennedy been totally worn out by her 254 pitches over the first two games and able to contribute only an inning Sunday and the A&M defense unraveled.

That’s how little separated these two clubs in as entertaining and spectacular as this super regional was.

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So if this is a prelude to what Texas will face in the double-elimination WCWS, which begins Thursday in Oklahoma City, it should be just fine. It proved itself more than worthy. But then we already knew that.

You can’t win 52 of your 60 games and not be seasoned. This team winks at pressure.

And even though this is a very young Texas team with four sophomore and two freshman starters in the field and another rookie in the circle to finish the game, it’s got a resolve and a belief that could easily carry them to the school’s first national championship in softball.

After losing the opening game of the super regional by 6-5 Friday night, the Longhorns rebounded and won the next two.

Just as they did in taking a home series against three-time defending national champion Oklahoma this year. Just like the Houston series, when they won two straight after dropping the opener.

Speaking of which, the big, bad Sooners will be in OKC, but in the other bracket than Texas’. The Longhorns smashed WCWS entrant UCLA twice — once by 16-0 — beat the Sooners twice and the Cowgirls once. They will open the WCWS against Stanford with another familiar face in their half of the draw in Oklahoma State, the only opponent to win a series against Texas all season.

But they’re done with the Aggies for a year.

The Horns usually celebrate sweeps or series wins with ice cream, but team leader Reese Atwood had suggested hot dogs instead of dessert.

“My favorite food is hot dogs,” the Texas slugger said. “So we got hot dogs tonight.”

And how did it taste?

“It actually got wet,” said Atwood, who was doused with Gatorade during the wild celebration. “It’s OK. I’ll get another one later.”

In reality, this super regional was more of an appetizer. The main course awaits.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas softball team escapes Aggies challenge