Texas Softball Keeps Sliding as Oklahoma Clinches Red River Rivalry Series

The Texas Longhorns have found themselves in a rough patch of the season after losing their first series of the year a week ago to the hands of the Alabama Crimson Tide on the road at Tuscaloosa.

The Longhorns keep on sliding, still unable to refine their footing now midway through the season. With a chance to rebound against their bitter rivals, Texas welcomed the No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners to Red and Charline McCombs Field, but the Longhorns lost their second straight conference series.

The Longhorns dropped the first game of the series to the Sooners on Friday night in a 3-0 shutout loss. The Longhorns headed to the diamond on Saturday, looking to set up a rubber match, but instead were handed their fourth straight loss, losing 4-3.

Texas Comes Up Short in a Grinded-Out Ballgame

Texas Longhorns catcher Reese Atwood watches the ball after a hit during the fifth inning against the Oklahoma Sooners. | Brett Rojo-Imagn Images

Game two of the series was another low-scoring affair with only one run separating the two rivals on Saturday. While the Longhorns were on the losing end of the ballgame, they were not shut out, unlike Friday, and found themselves a chance to score the win late.

"I thought they battled really well," head coach Mike White said. "We always want to come in with the last opportunity when we're at home. Kudos to our pitching staff; they kept the game close, same with our defense, but we couldn't quite string the hits together when we needed them."

The Longhorns would strike first on Saturday with a lone run, and that would be the way in which the game played out for the majority of game two, with the rivals trading one-run innings until the fifth inning.

Texas's pitching staff had done well keeping Oklahoma's power in check for the most part, with freshman Hannah Wells getting the start in the circle, pitching the first two innings, and allowing three hits and one earned run.

The Longhorns would find themselves in trouble as sophomore Brenlee Gonzales came in to relieve Wells and got herself into a jam to start the fifth inning, allowing a lead-off walk, followed by a base hit, and was pulled.

Brought in to limit the damage was senior Citlaly Gutierrez; however, damage was unavoidable. The Sooners found themselves one of their trademark big hits with star freshman catcher Kendall Wells blasting a three-run home run, which was No. 31 of the season.

"Obviously, we didn't come out of the right side of the score book," White said. "But we had some really good effort from people coming in different situations, and that's what we needed. I thought they all did a good job. Citlaly gave up the home run, but they're a great hitting team, and that's going to happen, but what I liked about her is she continued to battle for us."

The Longhorns wouldn't go away after the three-run homer put them down 4-2, getting a run back in the sixth inning to trail by just a lone run headed into the seventh inning of the ballgame.

Texas would find itself a chance to walk it off with junior infielder Katie Stewart getting on base with just one out in the inning, followed by senior catcher Reese Atwood. Atwood headed into the batter's box as the winning run; however, the senior would roll a game-ending double-play, sealing the game and the series.

The Longhorns will look to avoid the sweep and get one back on their rivals as the final game of the Red River Rivalry is set for Sunday, April 12, at 1:00 p.m. CT.

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