Texas Softball Is Hungry for Victory in Its First Year in the SEC
Teagan Kavan’s freshman year gave her a taste of what she and Texas Softball can achieve.
The right-handed pitcher who debuted for the Longhorns in 2024 enjoyed being part of a talented and tight-knit group that advanced to the Women’s College World Series (WCWS) Championship Series last June.
“It was incredible. I think more than I could have dreamed of,” the now-sophomore from West Des Moines, Iowa says. “Ten-year-old me wouldn’t have been able to write anything better.”
While Kavan accomplished her longtime goal of pitching in a College World Series, Texas fell to rival and national powerhouse Oklahoma in the Championship Series. The Sooners swept the Longhorns in two games, winning 8-3 in Game 1 and 8-4 in Game 2 to capture the program’s fourth straight national title and eighth overall.
Texas, which finished 55-10 on the season, missed out on what could have been the program’s first national championship win. The Longhorns’ 55 wins tied the program’s single-season record.
“We got to that final game, but we just weren’t good enough to win it,” says Texas softball coach Mike White, who has led the program since 2018.
Also the runner-up to Oklahoma for the 2022 national title, Texas has made seven WCWS appearances and 24 NCAA tournament appearances. The Longhorns’ regular season conference title in 2024 was their first since 2010 and fifth overall. And before making a run to the WCWS, Oklahoma defeated Texas 5-1 in the 2024 Big 12 Softball Championship tournament final, notching its ninth softball conference championship title.
Entering 2025, White and the team want more than just another good season during the program’s first year in the Southeastern Conference. Texas is set on securing a conference championship and getting another shot at the national title that evaded the team last year.
“There’s a standard that’s been set [by Oklahoma],” White says. “For the last four years, they’ve been the best team. We’ve got to work harder. We’ve got to do more away from practice, more individual work, smarter work.”
Kavan has embraced the challenge this offseason by developing a better split on her pitches to improve upon last season’s performance that helped her emerge as one of the top pitchers in college softball.
As a freshman in 2024, she pitched 130.2 innings, striking out 135 and finishing with a 2.2 ERA. Kavan posted a 20-3 record in 24 starts.
“I rely on my rise ball a lot, so developing a drop ball to go hand in hand with that is what I mainly focused on,” Kavan says, referring to the direction a pitch can send the ball spinning. “Just kind of getting more confident in the pitch, since I hadn’t thrown it a lot last season. I really want to be able to utilize that this year, especially going into the SEC, just to have another tool.”
The SEC features some of the best college softball programs in the country, including Oklahoma, a fellow newcomer to the conference this year.
“Playing in a new conference, I think that’s going to be exciting,” White says. “[As well as] playing in some of these environments that are pretty cool.”
Last season, the SEC led all conferences with 13 member schools making the NCAA tournament. The addition of Texas and Oklahoma has only strengthened the conference.
“There are no let downs throughout the conference,” White says. “Every week it’s going to be, like it is for football, playing the best of the best.”
Part of what made Texas so successful in 2024 was its deep pitching staff and ever-improving defense, White says. Being the No. 1 hitting team in the country also helped. But to say the Longhorns, still brimming with talent, can pick up exactly where they left off would be untrue.
“We’re smaller this year, but I think it will be really fun because everyone’s going to have time to be on the field,” Kavan says. “It’s hard to figure out who’s going to play where since we have a lot of talent, but that’s a good thing. We want that.”
Along with Kavan, catcher Reese Atwood, shortstop Viviana Martinez, catcher Katie Stewart, outfielder Kayden Henry, and utility player Mia Scott return. They are among the athletes White named as players to watch this season.
Texas added two new freshmen and a transfer for 2025. White says the roster will include 19 players plus one possible walk-on. That number is down from other years when the team had 21 or 22 athletes.
With sophomore Kavan, junior Citlaly Gutierrez, and freshman Cambria Salmon, the Longhorns have a somewhat young pitching staff.
“Last year was last year, and this year, we’ve got to go out and see what we can do,” White says.
White says only one Longhorn was an All-American in 2024, which was a challenge for several players who had hoped to garner that individual recognition. The coach says the program got a little overshadowed by “the team up north.”
But perhaps nothing is as motivating entering 2025 as what happened last June in the Championship Series against that very team on the other side of the Red River.
“Obviously, this year we have a little chip on our shoulders and are coming back wanting to finish it off. But [last season] was really special, and we ended on almost the last day we could have ended our season,” Kavan says. “It was just really cool to give the seniors that.”
CREDITS: Texas Athletics (3)
Share this article
No comments
Be the first one to leave a comment.