Rain delays and schedule changes were no problem for No.1 Texas softball as it took care of business against the Missouri Tigers. The weekend sweep against Missouri became the Longhorns’ second series sweep and fourth conference series victory of the season.
Sophomore star pitcher Teagan Kavan, who appeared in all three games of the series and started two, had another stellar weekend. Kavan struck out 26 batters through 13.2 innings of action and gave up just two earned runs. Kavan also threw her first career no-hitter in a dominant 8–0 win over Missouri in five innings on Saturday, earning Texas its 10th shutout victory this season.
Kavan pitched the entire game, meaning the Tigers’ batting was at a stalemate for all five innings. The sophomore struck out 11 batters and did not allow a single walk as two Tigers managed to reach base the whole game via infield errors by Texas.
“It was cold, obviously. But we had been sitting for a while, so (head coach Mike White) asked us if we were ready to go and kind of chomp at the bit a little, and I think we were,” Kavan said. “For me, I was just trusting my stuff and trusting my defense.”
Offensively, it was all Texas.
The Longhorn batters did not let the cold weather limit them, as they took a 4–0 lead in the first inning via a sacrifice pop fly from junior catcher Reese Atwood and a three-run homer by graduate infielder Joley Mitchell.
The game pretty much started and ended after the first, as Texas pounced on Missouri on both sides of the ball for the remainder of the game. The early lead not only helped settle Kavan down, but it helped give the Longhorns batting momentum to score four more runs.
“Obviously, Teagan was just in control,” White said. “You could have all the excuses with the temperatures or all the delays and everything else, but she was just down to business and able to shut Missouri down after we scored four runs in the first inning, which was huge because we were able to ride that momentum and keep it on our side.”
After Atwood hit her 14th home run of the season in the third inning, Texas tacked on an additional three runs for good measure in the fifth, thanks to run-scoring singles by Atwood, sophomore infielder Katie Stewart and junior utility Kaydee Bennett.
On Sunday, the Longhorns concluded their series against Missouri with a doubleheader. Kicking off game one of their pair of Sunday matchups, Texas rolled its momentum from Saturday’s open game of the series. A big first inning from the Longhorns batters set the tone for the rest of the outing, and Texas’s pitching stayed in control for most of game one.
Setting the tone early in the first inning was Mitchell with a base hit up the middle, allowing redshirt junior outfielder Ashton Maloney to score from third. Capping off the inning was a no-doubter off the bat of Stewart. A three-run home run extended the Longhorns lead to four in the game. The three-run shot from Stewart adds to her already long list of accolades, becoming just the fourth player in program history with a 60-plus RBI season.
Texas used a combination of three pitchers in the game and held a shutout until the seventh inning. It was a homecoming for starting senior pitcher Mac Morgan, a native of Creighton, just two hours outside Columbia. Morgan struck out four and gave up two hits in her three innings of work. Junior Citlaly Gutierrez came in for Morgan in the fourth and struck out five while giving up three hits in her 3.1 innings of work.
As smooth as the game was going, the bottom of the seventh placed a bit of pressure on the Longhorns. After giving up a walk and a single to left center, Gutierrez was pulled and Kavan was brought out to close the game. Different from her no-hitter performance on Saturday, Kavan gave up a three-run home run to get the Tigers within one run but settled in and striked out the next batter to end the game.
After a thirty-minute break, Texas was back on the field looking for the sweep and starting in the circle for the second time in the series was Kavan. After a 3–1 extra-inning victory in the second game of the day, the Texas Longhorns left Missouri with a series sweep.
A close game throughout, where the only runs through the regulatory seven innings were in the fourth inning. Where both teams traded solo home runs, moving the score to one a piece.
The game went to an extra inning in the series finale, and Mitchell was the one to find the breakthrough for the Longhorns. A sacrifice fly from Mitchell hit deep into right field and brought home sophomore outfielder Kayden Henry and Maloney across the plate for the go-ahead scores.
Kavan once more strung together another dominant performance, striking out 13 Missouri batters and giving up just one earned run through eight innings of action. And slamming the door in the final inning of the game with two back-to-back strikeouts to end the game.
The Longhorns return to Red & Charline McCombs Field after two consecutive away series. With a midweek matchup against the Texas State Bobcats on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
