At the beginning of March, No. 1 Texas softball head coach Mike White addressed his team’s need to be able to reach deeper into its pitching staff.
The month of March has come and gone, and with April on the horizon, the Longhorns still don’t seem to have a well-established No. 2 pitcher.
This growing problem presented itself over the weekend in their series against the No. 15 Texas A&M Aggies. Junior pitcher Teagan Kavan earned the start on both Friday and Sunday, which isn’t all that uncommon, but White also deployed her to the circle on Saturday to help Texas clinch the series with a 3-2 victory.
“We can’t put all that pressure on one pitcher,” White said. “We need to have that pitching (staff) step up.”
Kavan has accumulated 229 total pitches over the weekend, demonstrating how heavily she impacts the outcome of matchups for the Longhorns. While 229 isn’t a number warranting concern at the moment, it could mark the end of the portion of the season in which Kavan has an ample amount of rest time between matchups.
With the Aggies out of the way, the Longhorns still have three consecutive top-15 ranked opponents coming up. For now, though, White remains unworried about Kavan’s ability to consistently perform.
“Looking at her overall numbers, they’re not that high in comparison to a lot of other pitchers in the league or around the country,” White said. “It just seems that way because we pitched her a little more in that condensed period, but we’ve kind of been cognizant of making sure she’s not overworked, and she was fine.”
This cognizance will be key as the season continues. Pitchers burning out is not uncommon in this sport, especially when it comes to ones as esteemed as Kavan. The 2025 Women’s College World Series Most Outstanding Player could be charted for another postseason run, but this will require her to stay in good health.
“I haven’t met with her today to see how she’s feeling, but if she needs to take it lighter today, she’ll get most of tomorrow off as well, and be ready to go Thursday,” White said.
To get a better understanding of innings pitched that exceed the typical standard, one can take a closer look at senior Texas Tech pitcher NiJaree Canady. After throwing over 900 pitches across 11 games in the Red Raiders’ push to the Women’s College World Series Championship, she started to unravel in her final matchup and allowed the Longhorns to work their way to the program’s first title.
White has been utilizing freshman pitcher Hannah Wells and senior pitcher Citlaly Gutierrez, but the two have experienced ups and downs throughout the season. Finding consistency or one or both of them to be crucial to Texas’ success as the season stretches on.
Texas will open its series against No. 7 Alabama at Rhoads Stadium at 6 p.m. in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
