No. 3/2 Texas brought out the brooms as they swept their second Big 12 series in a row with a 3-1 win against UCF in Orlando, Florida. 

But sweeping is never an easy chore, and Texas had to work hard to clean up this series. 

The night before, Texas didn’t put away the Knights until the sixth inning, thanks to a Joley Mitchell RBI double and a Reese Atwood sacrifice groundout. Those two runs would help Texas win 4-2.

Now, just under 12 hours later, in the bottom of the fifth inning the next day, Texas faced a major problem: UCF had loaded the diamond. 

Down 3-0, UCF was in a hole, but they were climbing out. For the Longhorns, the problem started to near disaster as junior right-handed pitcher Sophia Simpson walked fifth-year Jada Cody on two outs, allowing for freshman Alexis Morgan to walk home. The bases were still loaded, the score now 3-1, and the Knights of UCF were prepared. 

Head coach Mike White needed time, so he held a meeting with his pitcher and infield. He decided to pull Simpson and freshman pitcher Teagan Kavan, who pitched a seven-inning complete game just 36 hours earlier, was tasked to get the Longhorns out of the inning. 

UCF head coach Cindy Ball-Malone also had a card up her sleeve. She decided to bring in junior Savannah Adams, a 0.348 hitter, to pinch hit for senior Katie Burge, a .304 hitter. 

The at-bat went ball, ball, strike, strike, strikeout. The freshman struck out the junior, and the Longhorns were out of the inning. 

Texas would hold their lead for the rest of the game, as Kavan would stay perfect on the mound, retiring the next six batters and striking out two in the process.

Since her five-run blow-up against then No. 2/2 LSU on Mar. 12, Kavan has pitched 13.2 innings in three appearances and given up just three runs. In that stint, she has struck out 13 batters and walked one. Her ERA now stands at 1.59, a 0.28 improvement since LSU. 

This season, the player hailing from West Des Moines, Iowa has pitched 23.8 more innings and struck out 46 more batters than anyone else on the team. For someone from a small state, Kavan is playing some big-time softball. 

Kavan and the 28-3 Texas Longhorns now approach their most difficult stretch of the season. They are set to battle the Oklahomas, playing the No. 4/6 Oklahoma State Cowboys Mar. 28-30 in Stillwater, Oklahoma before taking on the No. 1/1 Oklahoma Sooners at the Red and Charline McCombs Field, Apr. 5-7.