No. 1/1 Softball’s Kavan sends Longhorns into NCAA Super Regionals - University of Texas Athletics (2024)

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Game Recap: Softball | 05.19.2024 | Chris Allen Brown

The Big 12’s Freshman of the Year shakes nerves, fans career-high 12.

AUSTIN, Texas –By the third inning of Texas' 7-0 victory over Northwestern on Sunday afternoon, it was on Teagan Kavan's mind. By the fifth, it was on Viviana Martinez's mind. And once the sixth inning started, it was on everyone's mind.

Kavan, the Longhorns' right-handed pitcher and the Big 12 Conference's Freshman of the Year, was attempting to throw Texas' second no-hitter in the last three days. Through the game's first five frames, the Iowa native had allowed just three baserunners: a walk to the first batter of the game, a hit batter three batters later and then a two-out walk in the bottom of the fourth.

Kavan, a NFCA All-Central First Team selection, was virtually unhittable.

From the first batter of the game to the end of the fifth, a Wildcat batter did not send a ball out of the infield, if they even made contact on a Kavan pitch.

Through five innings, Kavan, in her postseason debut, had already matched her career high with nine strikeouts. She ended the fifth having struck out the last four consecutive and five of the last six batters faced. She pushed her total to 10 with a swinging strikeout to start the bottom of the sixth. She induced a pop up to Katie Stewart at first during the next at bat.

And then the hope of Texas' second no-hit pitching performance during the Austin Regional vanished with a two-out double to the left-center field gap on a 1-2 pitch to Northwestern senior Angela Zedak. On the next pitch, however, Kavan managed to get the final out of the sixth and walked off the field to a standing ovation.

Kavan returned to the circle for the bottom of the seventh, looking to close out her complete game shutout effort and did just that with a 1-2-3 frame that included two more strikeouts to push her game total to 12, marking the most by a Longhorn pitcher this season.

FROM HEAD COACH MIKE WHITE

"We look at (the pitchers) during bullpens throughout the week and (Teagan Kavan) looked really good, so I know she was chomping at the bit to get out there. But we feel confident with anyone we throw out there. I think what was overshadowed by our pitching this weekend was our defense. We really made some great plays."

FROM FRESHMAN PITCHER TEAGAN KAVAN

"It's huge (knowing I could have struggled but the offense would pick me up.) Just with the momentum that we have just going into a start when we are ahead is huge. And we just had the momentum the whole day today. Yesterday, when we found out we'd be visitors, Citlaly (Gutierrez) and I were just like, "Well, we can score first now," and go out there with some runs behind us. But it's just a big confidence for us as pitchers."

GAME NOTES

• For the second time during the NCAA Austin Regional, all nine starters for the Texas Longhorns successfully reached base at least once after the UT offense was credited with 12 hits and seven walks against three different Northwestern pitchers in seven innings of action.
• Texas' seven walks drawn against Wildcat pitching on Sunday were tied for the third-most walks by the Longhorns in a single game this season and most since UT's trip to Waco on April 12, 2024.
  • The program's single-game high for walks in 10 set on Feb. 10, 2024, when the Longhorns drew 10 walks off UCLA pitching.
• With the win on Sunday, Texas head coach Mike White extended his streak of consecutive Super Regional appearances to 14 in a row.
  • Coach White has never not made a Super Regional of a completed Division I softball season as a collegiate head coach.
    • In 15 seasons as a collegiate softball head coach, the only season White and his team did not advance to the NCAA Super Regionals occurred in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic halted the season.
      • At the time of the final game of that season, White and his staff had the Longhorns near the top of Division I softball with a 24-3 overall record.
• As a result of her two-run single in the top of the first inning, Katie Stewart (53) passed Viviana Martinez's 2023 season total (52) for the first RBI by a freshman in program history.

UP NEXT

• With Sunday's result, top-seeded Texas (50-7) advanced to next week's NCAA Super Regional action and will face 16th-seed Texas A&M (43-13).
  • Game times, dates and television designations aren't available at this time, but will be released upon the conclusion of NCAA Regional action around the country.

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