No. 2/1 Softball rallies in seventh, wins series at Houston

Sunday, March 10

Houston, TX

12 PM CT

University of Texas

21-2, 0

Houston

17-7, 0

Texas

HOUSTON

No. 2/1 Softball rallies in seventh, wins series at Houston

03.10.2024 | Softball

Box Score

Late-inning heroics from Alyssa Washington, Katie Cimusz help Texas clinch first conference series of the 2024 season

By: Chris Allen Brown

HOUSTON, Texas – Fans of The University of Texas softball program didn't have to wait long into the 2024 for the Longhorns to pick up their first Big 12 Conference series win of the season, but head coach Mike White and his staff did have to wait a bit later than they would've liked to seal Sunday's 8-6 victory over Houston to clinch the weekend series.

Texas had an opportunity to jump out to a first-inning lead — similar to Saturday's five-run top of the first — as Kayden Henry (single), Mia Scott (walk and Reese Atwood (hit by pitch) loaded the bases with only one away in the inning. But a strikeout looking, and a fielder's choice left three Horns on base.

Like Friday night's game, though, Houston was the first team in the run column on Sunday as the Cougars strung together two hits, a walk and a sacrifice fly off Longhorn starter Estelle Czech, who had a seven-pitch bottom of the first, to take an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second. But the UH lead was short lived.

Kayden Henry, in her second plate appearance on the afternoon, led off the third with a double down the right field line before scoring on a fielding error by Houston's right fielder, who was trying to gather a Mia Scott single. Two batters later, Scott, herself, scored from third on a Reese Atwood groundout that gave Texas a 2-1 lead.

After Houston tied the game in the bottom half of the third with a one-out solo home run, Texas, again, re-took the lead when Viviana Martinez, who was credited with a one-out single and then advanced to second on a throwing error and moved to third on an Ashton Maloney single, scored from third on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Bella Dayton.

The Longhorn's run total was doubled two innings later when Joley Mitchell connected on a 1-1 pitch for a three-run home run that nearly hit the Houston videoboard, again. The Cougars, however, found a way to tie the game at 6-6 with a four-run bottom of the sixth.

But, just as good teams do, Texas found a way in the top of the seventh to re-claim the game's lead.

It started with Atwood drawing a six-pitch walk to start the inning before being lifted for Leighann Goode. Mitchell, who had hit a three-run home run earlier in the day, laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Goode to second. Then, on the second pitch of her plate appearance, Alyssa Washington sent a 1-0 pitch in the right-center field gap to score Goode.

After Washington advanced to third on a wild pitch during Martinez' at bat, the senior second baseman scored on a sacrifice fly by Katie Cimusz, who entered the game as a pinch hitter for Maloney.

Now claiming to a two-run lead to start the bottom of the seventh, Teagan Kavan, who entered the game in the bottom of the sixth, worked around a leadoff walk to get the game's final three outs to earn her 10th win on the season.

FROM HEAD COACH MIKE WHITE

"Well, conference series are always interesting, because anything can happen, and I think this weekend's series certainly proved that. Kudos to Houston, they came out and swung the bats really well this weekend. I think, offensively, we hit the ball really well but just couldn't capitalize on opportunities to put games away. We had some mentally lapses, physical lapses, but I thought we had a quality start today from Estelle Czech. I thought she pitched really well so did Mac Morgan, but we didn't help either out today. And putting Teagan (Kavan) in a tough situation like that there at the end to see what we got, but hopefully we'll feel a little better next week."

UP NEXT

Less than 45 hours after the conclusion of Sunday's series finale at Houston, Texas (21-2, 2-1) will return to action against No. 3/3 LSU at Tiger Park in Baton Rouge, La., where the two top-three programs will play at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, March 12.
- The Tuesday matinee will mark just the sixth all-time meeting between the two softball programs in Baton Rouge, La., and first since LSU knocked off Texas, 7-2, on March 6, 2021.
  - The Tigers hold a 3-2 all-time record against the Longhorns in games played in Baton Rouge.

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