If the Texas fans in attendance on day two of the Longhorn Invitational hoped to see Texas softball’s offense at its best, their wish came true.
The Longhorns bested St. Bonaventure, 12-2, and Prairie View A&M, 8-0, in the last regular-season doubleheader. Even with a below-average performance defensively, Texas secured both wins due to its dynamic batters and its ability to adapt when mistakes were made.
The first inning ended with Texas leading the St. Bonaventure Bonnies, 7-0, thanks in part to freshman outfielder Alisa Sneed’s first career home run and grand slam. Sneed’s ball just barely cleared the centerfield fence, passing by the new “2025 National Champions” banner — a reminder that Texas is chasing after something bigger than a single game victory.
“I’ve been working more, trying to get my line drives going on, but today, coach told me ‘Go ahead and swing it,’” Sneed said.
The home runs didn’t end early. With two runners on base in the bottom of the second inning, junior catcher and infielder Katie Stewart had the crowd looking over and past the back fence the second her ball came off the bat. The Bonnies weren’t the only victims of Stewart’s bat — the graduate housing building located directly behind Red & Charline McCombs Field now features a hole from her long ball.
In total, Texas scored four home runs in four innings by four different players. Senior catcher Reese Atwood and junior hitter Victoria Hunter each sent balls past the outfield fence and into the street.
While the offense looked strong, the defense looked shaky in the first game. Despite sophomore pitcher Brenlee Gonzales giving up zero earned runs, St. Bonaventure was able to capitalize on two fielding errors to score its only two runs. With more experienced players like junior infielder Viviana Martinez and senior infielder Leighann Goode on the diamond against Prairie View A&M, Texas didn’t give up any errors or runs.
“I was judging them more on the way we prepared and the way we executed and the way we didn’t do things more than the score or the win,” White said. “I thought we didn’t play really well, I thought we were a little bit sloppy, we didn’t take advantage of opportunities. The second game, we made a better effort.”
Ending both games in a run-rule was a combined effort of the freshman and seasoned veterans. White started four freshmen against St. Bonaventure and two against Prairie View A&M. This was all in an effort to gauge the Longhorns’ composure and test their skills going into conference play.
“We have a pretty good idea (for) matchups. For example, (freshman infielder) Caigan Crabtree’s a little better on the low ball than some others,” White said. “(Hunter) is better on high pitches, so the situational at-bats that could come up or maybe defensive changes.”
Texas will take on University of the Incarnate Word tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. at Red & Charline McCombs Field for the last day of the Longhorn Invitational.
