No. 1 Texas Softball Clinches Series Win Over Mississippi State

After a rocky start to the weekend, No. 1 Texas Longhorns softball clinched its third Southeastern Conference series win against the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

For the first time in Starkville, Texas got runs on the board first. At the top of the first, junior outfielder Ashton Maloney tripled to left field. When sophomore outfielder Kayden Henry took on the bat as the next one in the lineup, she followed on Maloney’s footsteps and tripled to center field to run her teammate in.

“What we talked about this morning was trying to find a way to get ahead early in the game, because we are confident in Teagan (Kavan) being out there and her abilities to limit opposing offenses,” head coach Mike White said. “We went into a little bit of a lull, offensively, during the middle innings, but found a way to explode back in the top of the fifth, so we did a good job of creating some distance between us and them.”

Senior utility Mia Scott kept the momentum going as she flied out to left-field, bringing Henry home. Texas finished the first with a 2-0 lead as sophomore pitcher Teagan Kavan stopped the Bulldogs from getting any runs on the board.

The game took a slow pace for the next three innings as neither team scored. At the top of the fifth, Texas finally got this running again.

In a similar fashion from the first inning, Henry’s batting allowed Maloney to run home, and Scott brough Henry to the second run of the inning. This time, Scott also got her name up the board as graduate infielder Joley Mitchell homered to center field. Scoring four runs in five hits and leaving junior infielder Katie Stewart on base, Texas opened a six run lead.

In the bottom of the inning, Kavan got it done quickly as the Bulldogs failed to get any hits.

The Longhorns sealed the win in the top of the seventh as Stewart doubled to left center to allow freshman infielder Shylien Brister to get just her sixth collegiate run.

Mississippi State finally managed to put a couple runs on the board, but it was too late. Down 7-2, the Bulldogs dropped their first series of the season.

Texas will take on another away series next weekend as it faces unranked Missouri in Columbia.

“It’s about us and the attitude we bring,” White said. “We have to have that killer attitude, because every team in this conference is very good and we have to bring our best stuff and if you don’t, you get beat and that’s evident, so we have to be prepared for that. We have another road series coming up at Missouri. They’re tough, so we have to be prepared for that one.”