As raindrops started to fall over Red & Charline McCombs Field, junior infielder Katie Stewart stepped up to the plate in the eighth inning of No. 4 Texas softball’s Sunday matchup against No. 2 Oklahoma.
Freshman pinch hitter Hannah Wells had tied the game up at 6-6 with a solo home run two at-bats earlier, and the eager home crowd was ready for more action — preferably as soon as possible, as to avoid the impending thunderstorm set to begin at any moment.
Stewart, who didn’t seem all that bothered by her increasingly wet uniform or bat, drilled the ball over left field and rounded the bases behind junior outfielder Kayden Henry. Excited and relieved, the crowd erupted in cheers for the ending of this nail biter.
Texas beat both the storm and the Sooners, their four-game winning drought finally broken.
“I just knew it (was a home run) off the bat,” Stewart said following the win. “Knowing that the game was over and that we had won, just a wave of emotions came over.”
Oklahoma had gotten the better of the Longhorns in each of their previous two matchups, but Stewart’s home run marked a cinematic finish to a less than ideal weekend on the diamond.
Knowing that his team was in urgent need of a momentum shift approaching this third and final game of the series, head coach Mike White had tinkered with his lineup to create more opportunities at bat for his most dominant batter.
“(After her homer), it just felt like she just needs to see more pitches,” White said. “You come down to the stage where you say ‘Who do you want to have more at-bats in the lineup,’ and I think Katie was the one that just seemed to be so consistent for us.”
The payout of this move proved successful in a critical moment, but it wasn’t the only change made to the order that seemed to create better opportunities for Texas. Stewart hit another home run earlier in the matchup, with Wells, Henry and senior infielder Leighann Goode each adding one of their own.
White kept Henry in her typical leadoff spot, but moving Goode to fifth in the wake of her recent offensive success helped spread out some of the Longhorns’ most effective batters. Wells was put in as a pinch hitter for her eighth-inning home run.
While this offensively exciting matchup might’ve been what fans expected from each of the three battles between the Longhorns and Sooners, the other two highlighted each team’s ability to pitch and play defense.
“Beforehand, I had said it was going to be a slugfest, but if anything, it was more just a pitcher’s duel,” Stewart said about the weekend.
Junior pitcher Teagan Kavan headlined this duel for Texas, holding the Sooners to eight runs across 14 innings of play this past weekend. She effectively disrupted Oklahoma’s rhythm on Sunday, lasting seven innings before being switched out for sophomore pitcher Brenlee Gonzales and her fresh arm.
“(Oklahoma) is a very good hitting team, and so, for Teagan to do what she did for however long she threw was really great,” Stewart said.
With their first victory in four games under their belts, the Longhorns will return to the diamond on Friday in Athens, Georgia, to take on the No. 10 Bulldogs.
