No. 4/5 Softball earns first series win against No. 1/1 Oklahoma since 2009

Sunday, April 7

Austin, TX

1 PM CT

University of Texas

31-6, 0

Oklahoma

35-3, 0

Oklahoma

Texas

No. 4/5 Softball earns first series win against No. 1/1 Oklahoma since 2009

04.07.2024 | Softball

Box Score Texas Press Conference

Texas capped the weekend’s three-game Big 12 Conference series with second consecutive 2-1 victory over the Sooners.

By: Chris Allen Brown

AUSTIN, Texas – For the first time since Flo Rida's "Right Round" was the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100, The University of Texas softball program earned a Big 12 Conference series win over the Oklahoma Sooners following the Longhorns' 2-1 victory on Sunday afternoon.

Mirroring Saturday night's 2-1 Texas win, Oklahoma broke through into the run column first with a solo home run off the bat of freshman Ella Park against Longhorn starter Teagan Kavan to start the top of the third. But the Sooner lead was short lived.

After recording back-to-back ground outs to start the bottom of the fourth inning, Oklahoma starting pitcher Kelly Maxwell hit Viviana Martinez with the first pitch of the sophomore's plate appearance. And then, three pitchers later, Texas freshman first baseman Katie Stewart sent a 1-1 pitch from Maxwell that sailed over the left field fence and hit off a structure outside the stadium then ricocheted back into the stadium.

Now claiming a 2-1 lead, Estelle Czech, who entered the game for Kavan with a runner on first base and two away in the fourth, worked around a two-out single up the middle in the fifth to keep the Longhorns in front. An inning later, Oklahoma, again, attempted to rally following a one-out hit by pitch. But Alynah Torres lined into an inning-ending double play.

Czech (5-3) went on to earn her fifth win on the season after working around a two-out single in the top of the seventh.

FROM HEAD COACH MIKE WHITE

"The first thing I would like to do is congratulate both teams on outstanding performances this weekend. I think it was great softball to watch: a lot of good plays, pressure hitting and pitching. It had everything you really want to see in a softball series. I think we did what a lot of people thought was impossible and that was beat Oklahoma two days in a row. I certainly don't remember the last time that happened. I think it's the first series we've won against them since 2009, so this was big for our program. But Oklahoma is always a challenge, and they will bounce back hard — everyone knows that — but I think we learned a lot about ourselves this weekend."

GAME NOTES

Katie Stewart's fourth-inning, two-run home run was the first by the Texas offense since Reese Atwood's solo home run at UCF on Sunday, March 24, 2024.
- It was also the first home run for the Longhorns at home since Ryan Brown's two-run home run against BYU on Friday, March 15, 2024.
With her 3.1 innings of relief work to earn her fifth win of the season, Estelle Czech capped Texas' series win over Oklahoma having tossed 6.0 innings of scoreless softball against the top-ranked offense in Division I softball.
- Czech finished as the only softball student-athlete in the Big 12 to throw a minimum of 1.0 inning per their team's games on the week and finish with a 0.00 earned run average (ERA).
For the second consecutive game, Texas handed an Oklahoma pitcher their first loss of the season as Kelly Maxwell (11-1) suffered her first loss of not only the 2024 season but her Sooner career after allowing two earned runs in 4.2 innings of work.
Of Oklahoma six hits against Texas' starting pitcher Teagan Kavan and relief pitcher Estelle Czech, only two were extra base hits: Kasidi Pickering's second-inning, one-out double and Ella Parker's third-inning solo home run.
Bella Dayton's fifth-inning, two-out triple was the first triple allowed by Oklahoma's pitching staff in 227.2 innings of work this season.
Sunday afternoon marked the first time since March 28 and March 29, 2009 that Texas has not only beaten Oklahoma on back-to-back days but also earned a series win over the Sooners.

UP NEXT

After playing nine consecutive Big 12 games, Texas (31-6, 11-4) will break from conference play for a mid-week, non-conference game against RV/No. 23 Texas State (32-9, 9-3) on Wednesday, April 10, when the two programs will meet at Red & Charline McCombs Field at 4:30 p.m.
- The Longhorns will return to conference play on Friday, April 12, when UT travels up I-35 to Waco to play No. 25/21 Baylor at Getterman Stadium with first pitch slated for 6:30 p.m.

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