OKLAHOMA CITY -- There was so much messiness this season for Texas softball, so many ups and downs. So many great moments and head-scratchers. So many elimination games that at some point along the way they picked up the nickname "Heart Attack Horns."
Maybe the Longhorns did play better when they absolutely had to, the way they did in the super regionals when they lost their first game against Arizona State, and again in the Women's College World Series, when they lost their opener to Tennessee and had a rally to find a way back to the championship series.
But no Longhorn wanted to take the hard route Thursday night, not with a second straight national championship there for the taking against Texas Tech. Not when they still remembered last year, when they needed three games to win the title despite taking the opener against these very Red Raiders.
Before Game 2, senior Ashton Maloney said the goal for Texas was clear:
"We already had enough hard stuff this whole year. Let's just win it in two," she said.
That's exactly what Texas did, beating Texas Tech 4-1 to win back-to-back national titles and perhaps supplant their rival to the north as the premier softball program in the country.
"Well, that's to be seen," Texas coach Mike White said when asked where his program stands compared to Oklahoma and the rest. "But like I said when we started the season, we won a national championship, but we're not here to defend it, we're here to get better. There's still some growth for us to do, but that's part of this game. If you just stay level, you're going to get left behind."
White might not have been ready to make a bold statement about his team's place in history on the night it won a national championship, but his departing seniors had plenty to say about where the program is seven years into his tenure. They made a commitment to White when he had nothing but a vision to sell.
That meant challenging moments, and hard lessons learned. Texas might have made it to the championship series for the fourth time in the past five seasons, but they endured heartbreak twice, losing to Oklahoma in 2022 and 2024 before winning it all for the first time last season.
"I think it's always in the back of your mind, like, 'Oh I could win a national championship going to college,' but after losing two, I kind of felt defeated," Maloney said. "But winning last year took this program to the next level. I think you're going to see a lot of national championships from the University of Texas in the coming years."
This kind of success is exactly what athletic director Chris Del Conte envisioned when he hired White from Oregon. Standing on the field in the postgame celebration, screaming, "Yeah, Mikey!" Del Conte reflected on what White has meant to Texas softball.
He recalled a conversation he had with former Arizona coach Mike Candrea, who won eight national titles with the Wildcats. In 2018, Del Conte asked Candrea for his advice on whom to hire. At that point, Oklahoma was surging as a power, and though Texas had made WCWS appearances before, the Longhorns never quite found a way to get past the established softball contenders.
"I asked Mike Candrea who is the best coach for me to hire, he said, 'You go get Mikey White, he'll win you a national championship.'" Del Conte recalled. "When he said that, I said, 'OK,' and we went and got him and he's delivered on everything Mike Candrea said he would.
"It's his time. He's due."
That doesn't mean it was easy.
At the first team meeting of the season, there was no ignoring what everyone in the room knew: This Texas team was more talented than last season's Texas team. The Longhorns wanted to win themselves another national title, and soon a new moniker took hold: "All Eyes on Texas." There were other programs with championship aspirations -- including Texas Tech with NiJaree Canady returning and Oklahoma, too -- but Texas wanted to be the team that everybody couldn't stop watching
They opened as one of the favorites to make it back to Oklahoma City, and for the vast majority of the season, the Longhorns played the way everyone expected them to. But the hiccups started in late March and April, when Texas lost seven of 11 games before winning the SEC tournament.
Then, the team lost the first game of super regionals to Arizona State, before winning the next two games (the first by one run, the second in a 5-0 blowout) to make it back to the WCWS. Then, in the opener in Oklahoma City at Devon Park, Texas lost to Tennessee 6-3. After that game, Maloney stood up and screamed, "More games!"
"Horns don't say die," Maloney said. "You never quit. You never give up."
As catcher Reese Atwood said, the fight is inside the DNA of the team. Much of that fight came behind the arm of Teagan Kavan and the bat of Katie Stewart. But other players stepped up in the clutch, too, including pitcher Citlaly Gutierrez, Kayden Henry, Viviana Martinez and Jaycie Nichols.
When Texas needed someone to come through, a player would always emerge. In the first WCWS elimination game against Mississippi State, Kavan pitched a four-hit shutout.
Against Nebraska in a second WCWS elimination game, Stewart hit a three-run home run with her team trailing 1-0 in the sixth inning. In the first game against Tennessee on Monday, Gutierrez delivered, giving up one earned run and five hits in 6â…” innings in her first WCWS start.
Kavan delivered again in Game 2 against Tennessee and suddenly Texas had reeled off four straight wins to go 6-0 in elimination games in the NCAA tournament, with a rematch against Texas Tech on deck. Indeed, Texas' six wins when facing elimination are tied for the most by any team in a single NCAA tournament.
"It's very obvious that this team plays very well with our backs against the wall, and I think you know we lost the first game, but I don't think that brought our confidence down any bit," Henry said. "I just think it helped us bond a little bit more together, and just realize how tough we really are."
If there is a throughline to the performances in the championship series this year and last year it is Kavan, the most clutch postseason pitcher in the country. She shut down the Texas Tech lineup in a 7-3 victory Wednesday -- throwing over 100 pitches for the second straight game.
Gutierrez started Thursday against Canady, and for a while Texas Tech held a 1-0 lead as the Canady pitched another gem. But Gutierrez held her own, holding Texas Tech to one run. Texas turned to Kavan in relief in the sixth inning, leading 2-1, hoping to close out the victory. When Texas pitching coach Pattie Ruth Taylor told Kavan she was going in, "She was locked in," Taylor said. "She said, 'I'm ready to do it.'"
Kavan more than did it. She struck out five of the six batters she faced on her way to Most Outstanding Player honors, becoming the first two-time WCWS MOP.
"Today when she came in and she smelled the win, she would not give that up," White said. "She shut the door so hard. You've got to take your hat off to a kid like that who can do that in those moments, with that many fans watching you and all that pressure. She felt no pressure. She just wanted to do it for her team."
Kavan finished the WCWS with four wins -- including two shutouts -- and two saves. She is the first pitcher with multiple shutouts and multiple saves in a single WCWS.
"This is what you dream about," Kavan said. "I kept telling myself in the bullpen, 'This is why we work so hard -- for this exact moment right here so, just trust myself. The hard work is over when you get here. It's just going out and playing free, and with these girls behind me, I feel like I can do anything."
Texas has now won 50-plus games for the third straight season -- the longest streak in program history. The Longhorns are also set to return the bulk of their team next season. Kavan, Stewart, Henry, Martinez, Nichols and Hannah Wells already know what it feels like to win two national titles. Texas signed another elite recruiting class, and White said he might go into the transfer portal -- it opens Monday -- more than he has the past few years to fill a few holes.
He specifically mentioned the senior class laying a foundation for not only what has been accomplished but what is to come.
"I have so much faith in this program," said Atwood, one of those departing seniors. "I believe that they can three-peat. I believe that they can four-peat, and I believe that with the standards that this program has set, anything that we want is possible."
