The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
San Diego
No. 8/5 Softball preview: Opening Weekend
02.08.2024 | Softball
Texas to open the 2024 Division I softball season with five games over a three-day span in California
AUSTIN, TX – Texas softball head coach Mike White, his coaching staff and the rest of The University of Texas softball program will look to erase the memories of the last game of the 2023 season when the Longhorns open the 2024 season with a pair of non-conference games on Friday, Feb. 9 in California.
On Friday, Feb. 9, Texas will begin the new season against San Diego (2:30 p.m. CT) at UCLA's Easton Stadium in Los Angeles. Less than six hours later, the Longhorns square off against the No. 10/8 Bruins (8 p.m. CT) in front of a nation-wide audience on ESPN. Beth Mowins (play by play) and Michele Smith (analyst) will serve as the broadcast talent for the matchup.
The following day, Texas will play San Diego (5 p.m. CT) and UCLA (8 p.m. CT), again, but this time at Bill Barber Park in Irvine, Calif., with both matchups being streamed on FloSoftball ($). The three-day trip to the West Coast will conclude on Sunday, Feb. 11, when the Longhorns travel back to Los Angeles to play at Smith Field against LMU (2 p.m. CT/ESPN+).
LEADING OFF
- Highlighted by three 10-win student-athletes — Mac Morgan (18), Citlaly Gutierrez (13) and Estelle Czech (10) — from a season ago, Texas' sixth-year head coach Mike White returns 100 percent of the Longhorns' pitching staff from the 2023 season.
- Last season, each of the four Longhorn pitchers were credited with at least one save: Gutierrez (3), Morgan (2), Simpson (2) and Czech (1).
- Each member of the pitching quartet finished last season with an earned run average (ERA) of 2.60-or-lower: Gutierrez (2.00), Morgan (2.50), Czech (2.56) and Simpson (2.60).
- The pitching staff will become a quintet in 2024 as Iowa native Teagan Kavan joins the Longhorns as a true freshman out of West Des Moines, Iowa.
- Kavan did not play softball in high school at Dowling Catholic in Iowa — the state plays high school softball during the summer — but instead opted to focus on travel ball, where the 6-foot right-handed pitcher totaled 1,444 strikeouts over 772.2 innings (1.87 strikeouts per inning, 13.1 strikeouts per seven innings) pitched to go along with 45 shutouts and six no-hitters.
- At the dish, the Texas offense returns 83.1 percent (271-326) of the RBI total, 81.8 percent (652-797) of the total base total, 81.4 percent (433-532) of the team's hit total, 80.8 percent (42-52) of the home run total and 78.1 percent (289-370) of the run total from the 2023 season.
- Among the high percentage of offensive productivity returning for the 2024 season is a quintet of student-athletes who burst onto the scene as freshmen: Ashton Maloney, Viviana Martinez, Leighann Goode and Reese Atwood.
- Of the program's 532 hits from a season ago, the quintet accounted for 239 or 44.9 percent.
- Additionally, the quintet accounted for 139 — or 37.6 percent — of the team's 370 runs scored; 153 (46.9 percent) of 326 RBI; 336 (45.9 percent) of 797 total bases and 24 (46.2 percent) of 52 home runs.
- Of the program's 532 hits from a season ago, the quintet accounted for 239 or 44.9 percent.
- Among the high percentage of offensive productivity returning for the 2024 season is a quintet of student-athletes who burst onto the scene as freshmen: Ashton Maloney, Viviana Martinez, Leighann Goode and Reese Atwood.
- Friday night's matchup against UCLA will mark the first time the two programs have met on a softball diamond since playing on June 2, 2022 in Oklahoma City as part of the Women's College World Series.
- The Longhorns won that matchup, 7-2, behind a 4-for-4 performance from then-freshman Mia Scott.
- Alyssa Washington, who had a run-scoring single in the third inning, Katie Cimusz and Bella Dayton, who connected for a two-run home run in the top of the sixth inning, are the only active Longhorn student-athletes to have participated in that game.
- Feb. 27, 2020 was the last time Texas played UCLA in Los Angeles, where the Longhorns won, 6-4, in an eight-inning affair that was capped by back-to-back eighth-inning solo home runs from Mary Iakpop and Lauren Burke.
- No active Longhorn softball student-athlete participated in that game.
- Texas has a 2-2 all-time record against UCLA in games played in Los Angeles and a 5-9 mark against the Bruins in neutral-site matchups.
- Overall, the Bruins hold a 12-7 advantage in the win-loss column over the Longhorns dating back to the first-ever meeting on Feb. 13, 1999, when UCLA won, 5-4, in eight innings in Phoenix.
- The Longhorns won that matchup, 7-2, behind a 4-for-4 performance from then-freshman Mia Scott.
- Friday afternoon's matchup against San Diego will mark the first-ever softball game between the two programs.
- Texas will take on Loyola Marymount on Sunday, Feb. 11 with a perfect 3-0 all-time meeting between the two programs.
- The Longhorns won the last matchup between the two on March 14, 2017, when UT won, 8-2, in Los Angeles.
- All three games between Texas and LMU have taken place within the state of California:
- Cathedral City, Calif. – Feb. 17, 2005
- Cathedral City, Calif. – Feb. 26, 2011
- Los Angeles, Calif. – March 14, 2017
- All three games between Texas and LMU have taken place within the state of California:
- The Longhorns won the last matchup between the two on March 14, 2017, when UT won, 8-2, in Los Angeles.
- A new addition to the Texas softball coaching staff this season is Pattie Ruth Taylor, who will work with the program's five pitchers.
- Taylor comes to the Forty Acres following a two-year stint as an assistant coach who oversaw the pitching staff of the Lehigh softball program. She also served as a volunteer assistant coach for two seasons (2020-21) at UConn.
- Taylor was a four-year letterwinner (2015-18) at Middle Tennessee State, where she was a National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-American Scholar Athlete.
FOLLOW US
- For the latest information on the team, follow @TexasSoftball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. General athletic news can also be found at @TexasLonghorns on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
