No. 9/13 Texas softball overcame No. 10/12 Virginia Tech with an 8-2 win on Saturday at Red & Charline McCombs Field with authoritative play by freshman shortstop and second baseman Viviana Martinez. Texas advanced its season record to 9-2-1.

The Longhorns faced the Hokies on Friday as well to kick-start their Lone Star State Invitational tournament. Texas came up early with a two-run lead in the first inning as a result of a home run by junior infielder Alyssa Washington.  However, Virginia Tech gained enough momentum in the seventh inning to tie the Longhorns with back-to-back home runs, which eventually allowed them to grasp the lead and the game in the eighth inning.

“Yesterday was a tough loss,” Martinez said. “We were pretty close, it was a 6-5 game, so today we just wanted to attack and get ahead first and stay strong the whole game.”

Saturday’s outcome was different, however, and the Longhorns were able to learn from their mistakes on Friday.

“I thought we were really focused,” head coach Mike White said. “I think we wanted to make amends for (Friday’s game) today and we scored early and kept scoring.”

Sophomore right-handed pitcher Mac Morgan started on the mound for the Longhorns on Saturday. The win brought her personal record to 4–0 for the season.  With all seven innings pitched, Morgan only allowed two runs by the Hokies.

Martinez dominated at the plate, which ultimately led the Longhorns to victory. Texas appeared on the scoreboard quickly in the first inning with a hit from Martinez that scored two runs. Later on in the bottom of the third inning, she doubled and brought in two runs once more, increasing Texas’ lead to a four-run deficit. To start the bottom of the sixth inning and her last time at the plate for the game, Martinez hit a solo homerun to bring the score to 5-1. Martinez ended the game with three hits off of three at-bats with a total of five runs batted in, a 2.333 slugging percentage and a 3.333 on-base plus slugging percentage. She described what worked personally for her that caused Martinez to be so successful at the plate. 

“Getting my pitch ahead and not getting too deep in the count because they are good pitchers,” Martinez said. “I was not expecting any garbage, I knew they were going to pitch in the zone.”

Following a dominant 8-0 win over Abilene Christian University after the Longhorns faced Virginia Tech on Saturday, Texas will play its final game of the Lone Star State Invitational on Sunday against Texas Southern at 3 p.m.