Kavan. Goode. Scott. These names, and more, will forever be etched into the memories of Longhorn Nation.
After two heartbreaking losses at the 2022 and 2024 Women’s College World Series finals and coming so close to the crown, Texas softball won its first-ever national championship in program history on Friday in a 10-4 victory over Texas Tech.
“It’s a surreal moment,” senior pitcher Sophia Simpson said. “Every little kid dreams of winning the World Series, let alone going to it. And we’ve been fortunate enough to go three times.”
Texas knew its batters needed to find their rhythm early in the game to win. Previously, the Longhorn offense struggled against star pitcher junior NiJaree Canady and her defense in the first two games of this final series.
But not today.
The highly anticipated pitching battle between sophomore ace Teagan Kavan and Canady lasted only one inning. The batters got hot early in the bottom of the first and continued to heat up.
Already up by two runs, junior utility Leighann Goode blasted a three-run homer over center field to give the Longhorns a 5-0 lead.
“We were talking about being out front, being on time, picking good pitches to hit. We had already sparked a little bit of a fire,” graduate first baseman Joley Mitchell said. “But (with Goode’s home run) that’s a huge fire.”
Canady was pulled out of the circle by the end of the first inning.
The Longhorns finally got to lift the national championship trophy above their heads, but this accomplishment came with its share of hardships.
Beyond slumps in this tournament, Texas faced trials and tribulations throughout the season, such as competing in a new conference, playing without junior shortstop Viviana Martinez, dropping the Tennessee and Oklahoma series and getting run-ruled in the semifinals of the conference tournament.
However, those moments made this victory even sweeter.
“Even just a couple weeks ago, when we were in the SEC tournament, we were just like, ‘How are we going to do this?’” Mitchell said. “We finally sat down, and we said, ‘We are going to do this because we believe in each other; we believe in ourselves.’ The last couple of weeks are what was most important (this) season.”
The senior class had to overcome even more adversity, as this group had been on this stage twice before but had never been able to finish the job.
Today’s game was the final time that senior utility Mia Scott would don burnt orange and white, and she had to make her last outing one to remember. Scott made clutch and near-impossible plays at third base for this entire tournament — all with a torn ACL — but she needed her career-defining moment at bat.
At the bottom of the fourth inning, Scott hit a grand slam over center field to put the game out of reach for Texas Tech.
With the threat of being run-ruled held over their heads, the Red Raiders drove in three runs in the top of the fifth with two outs off of errors and then tacked on another run in the seventh to cut the deficit to six runs.
However, Kavan and the Texas defense stayed focused and got the final three outs to end the game. Kavan walked away from her sophomore season as the MVP and gave praise to head coach Mike White, who finally gave Texas a championship in his seventh year at the helm.
“He wants (the win) just as bad as we do, of course,” Kavan said. “He pushes us to be better every day. He makes me a better pitcher, mentally and physically, and so there’s no one else I’d rather play for. He’s the bomb.”
