Now-Texas softball head coach Mike White coached against his daughter, Nyree White, several times while he coached at Oregon and she played at Stanford from 2012-2014.
However, Texas’ game against Houston on Friday at the Red & Charline McCombs Field more than a decade later marked the first time the two have gone head-to-head on the diamond as fellow coaches, as Nyree is in her first season as the Cougars’ pitching coach.
Mike and his Longhorns swiftly overpowered Houston, 9-1, in five innings, but the seasoned coach expressed pride in his daughter’s new chapter.
“I think she’s doing an excellent job over there, and (it’s her) first year doing it, so I’m impressed,” Mike said. “It’s not as bad as when she was a player. It was worse. It was like a damned if you do, damned if you don’t kind of thing.”
Nyree and the Cougars utilized two pitchers on Friday and, despite their best efforts, the pair ultimately accumulated nine errors and conceded nine hits to Texas’ offense. The Longhorns’ offensive effort was highlighted by a home run by junior infielder and catcher Katie Stewart.
After the game, Stewart emphasized the importance of her team’s offensive prowess in terms of providing relief to their pitchers.
“(It) just kind of release(s) some pressure off our pitchers, so they feel more open to have their mistakes, and they’re not so pressed to be perfect,” Stewart said. “And so, our goal is to score as much as early as we can to give them a little more leeway, and then to move on from there.”
That being said, Friday’s pitchers didn’t need all that much leeway to take care of business against Houston.
After a few strong showings at Texas’ tournament in Palo Alto, California this past weekend, senior pitcher Citlaly Gutierrez secured the start on Friday at home. Averaging just under 13-pitches-per inning over her four innings of play, Gutierrez was able to help Texas maximize efficiency on the defensive side of the ball.
White said he views 13 as the “magic number” for his team when it comes to pitches-per-inning, also emphasizing Gutierrez’s ability to bounce back after Houston’s first-inning home run.
“We don’t want to give up that run, but she was able to do that, shake it off and come back and pitch her game and use our off speeds effectively,” White said.
For the fifth and final inning of play, White decided to deploy a younger player looking to establish confidence on the mound: freshman pitcher Hannah Wells. The home crowd lit up at her arrival on the diamond, helping her to two strikeouts and a groundout to close the matchup in just three batters.
“(Wells), coming in, did exactly what she needs to do, (giving) us a little more confidence in her in those situations,” White said.
Next, the Longhorns will turn their attention to a double-header against St. Bonaventure and then Prairie View A&M on Saturday, starting at 2:30 p.m.
