The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
29-2, 0
Auburn
21-9, 0
Atwood sets program career RBI record, No. 2/2 Softball beats No. 23/RV Auburn
03.21.2025 | Softball
Texas wins first home SEC softball game in run-rule fashion
AUSTIN, Texas – It took until the 29th game of the 2025 regular season for The University of Texas softball program to play its first Southeastern Conference (SEC) game at Red & Charline McCombs Field. And it was well worth the wait for the Longhorn faithful as UT knocked off Auburn, 12-2, in five innings.
While eight different Longhorn student-athletes drove in at least one run throughout the course of the 1-hour, 39-minute contest, none meant more than Reese Atwood's two first-inning runs batted in (RBI) that pushed her career total to 179, surpassing Taylor Thom (178) atop the Texas career RBI leaderboard. In typical Atwood fashion, the junior achieved the feat by sending an 0-1 pitch 237 feet and over the left field fence for a two-run home run, her 46th career home run.
And from Atwood's home run, the Texas offense just passed the bat down the lineup as seven of the nine starters were credited with one hit, while Vanessa Quiroga added a pinch-hit, run-scoring single to kickoff off an eight-run, six-hit bottom of the fourth for the Longhorns.
By the end of the bottom of the fourth, Texas had faced four different Auburn pitchers with three being tagged for four runs. And, as a team, the Longhorns hit for the cycle between Atwood and Joley Mitchell's home runs, a triple by Katie Cimusz and doubles off the bat of Ashton Maloney and Mia Scott to pair along with singles from Kayden Henry, Katie Stewart, Quiroga, Maloney and Mitchell.
FROM HEAD COACH MIKE WHITE
"It's just tremendous for Reese (Atwood) to be able to break the program's career RBI record. She deserves it. I don't think there's too many people who work harder than her throughout her career so far and she has a whole other year left, too. So, it's exciting to see what she can do and how she continues the rest of her journey as a player. And what an effort by the team today. Everyone did such a great job and, of course, it was all started by Reese's home run."
FROM JUNIOR REESE ATWOOD
"It feels great to be able to come out here and play with this team. A lot of this record is because of them, so it's definitely an all-team effort for that one. It's great for this team to have such a great offense and be able to come through for them tonight. My whole family was here tonight, so it was cool for them to be able to see it happen."
GAME NOTES
- With her two-run scoring double in the bottom of the fourth, Mia Scott was credited with her 50th career double, joining Janae Jefferson (55) as the only Longhorn softball student-athletes to hit 50-or-more doubles throughout their careers on the Forty Acres.
- Additionally on the play, Scott drove in Ashton Maloney and Kayden Henry to push her career RBI total to 156, passing Lexy Bennett (155) for fifth on the program's career RBI list.
- Following her first-inning home run, Reese Atwood is now just one home run shy of tying Lindsey Stephens (2013-16) for second on the program's career home run list and 12 shy of tying Taylor Hoagland (2010-13) for the top spot.
- With her four strikeouts in four innings of work on Friday afternoon, Teagan Kavan (12-1) became the first Texas pitcher with back-to-back 100-strikeout seasons since Brooke Bolinger fanned 123 and 109 throughout the 2018 and 2019 seasons, respectively.
- Kavan becomes the first Texas pitcher under seventh-year head coach Mike White to strikeout 100-or-more batters in multiple seasons.
- With the win, Texas moves to 6-0 under head coach Mike White in conference home openers, while also extending an active winning streak in said contests to seven consecutive.
- Overall, Coach White is 13-2 all time in home-opening conference games, while Texas moves to 22-6 as a program in its first home conference game of a season.
- As a result of her two doubles against Tiger pitching, Mia Scott became just the fourth active Division I softball student-athlete to surpass 400 career total bases.
UP NEXT
- Texas (29-2, 3-1) will look for its second consecutive SEC series victory on Saturday, Mar. 22, when the second-ranked Longhorns take on No. 23 Auburn (21-9, 0-7) at 2 p.m. CT.
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.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Kavan, Teagan (12-1)
L: Haley Rainey (3-2)
Batting:
2B: AnnaLea Adams 1 ; Thalia Martin 1
RBI: Abbey Smith 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Georgia Lessmann 1 ; Thalia Martin 1
Batting:
2B: Maloney, Ashton 1 ; Scott, Mia 2
3B: Cimusz, Katie 1
HR: Atwood, Reese 1 ; Mitchell, Joley 1
RBI: Maloney, Ashton 2 ; Scott, Mia 2 ; Atwood, Reese 2 ; Mitchell, Joley 1 ; Stewart, Katie 2 ; Cimusz, Katie 1 ; Goode, Leighann 1 ; Quiroga, Vanessa 1
SF: Cimusz, Katie 1 ; Goode, Leighann 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Maloney, Ashton 1 ; Henry, Kayden 1 ; Scott, Mia 2 ; Atwood, Reese 2 ; Mitchell, Joley 1 ; Wallace, Adayah 1 ; Cimusz, Katie 2 ; Goode, Leighann 1 ; Bennett, Kaydee 1
SB: Henry, Kayden 1
CS: Maloney, Ashton 1 ; Henry, Kayden 1
HBP: Stewart, Katie 1 ; Goode, Leighann 1
