Texas Softball Takes Down Southeastern Louisiana in First Midweek Action

The Texas Longhorns come off a clean sweep in their action out west, cruising through their participation in the DeMarini Invitational, going a perfect 5-0 over the weekend in California and improving to a 14-1 record throughout their first weeks of action.

With momentum firmly in grasp with a 12-game win streak, the Longhorns returned to home soil for some midweek action, their first of the season, to take on the Southeastern Louisiana Lions, who headed into Red & Charline McCombs Field with a 13-3 record on the young season, with the Lions holding an upset victory over then No. 5-ranked Oregon.

And the Longhorns were able to take care of business in their Wednesday night matchup, carving out a 7-2 victory over the Lions to improve to a 15-1 record and extend their win streak to 13 games.

Texas Cruises Thanks to Stifling Pitching and Timely Hitting

Texas Longhorns pitcher Teagan Kavan throws a pitch against the Tennessee Volunteers. | BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Trotting out to the field to start the game for the Longhorns in the circle would be the All-American junior pitcher Teagan Kavan, who has found her rhythm after a solid showing over the weekend, where she would toss 16 innings, giving up just three earned runs and 19 strikeouts while recording a 1.68 ERA over her three appearances.

And Kavan would pick up right where she left off in her Wednesday night start, pitching a complete game against the Lions in which she surrendered five hits and two earned runs while striking out eight batters in seven innings of work.

The junior would throw 105 pitches on the night, dueling in a total of 26 at-bats with a few of those getting into some deep country, but Kavan did not waver and was able to get in and out of innings with ease for the majority of the game.

"I'm just trying to take a deep breath," Kavan said on visits to the circle. "I think sometimes when it gets long counts, I'm just letting the game speed up and not taking it pitch by pitch... so it's just a mental reset for me to just go and attack that current pitch and not worry about anything else."

Texas would open its scoring early on in the first inning courtesy of a two-run home run blast from senior catcher Reese Atwood on the very first pitch she saw in her at-bat. With the home run, the senior takes her tally up to eight home runs on the season.

However, those would be the only runs the Longhorns would get from the longball, having to find ways to play small ball and get runners on board and battle to get those base runners across to score. The Longhorns would do exactly that for their next five runs of the game after the Lions equalized the game in the top of the second inning.

Texas ended the night with seven hits from six different players, with four of those notching an RBI, an aspect of the game head coach Mike White said was emphasized prior to the game.

"Coach (Ehren) Earleywine hit it in our team meeting," White said. "He said that even though they were pitching around Reese and Stewie, we were able to have other people step up. MaTaia (Lawson) and Kaiah Altmeyer were able to drive in those runs for us in key situations, and so that's what we need.

The Longhorns will get back on the field quickly as they host the Longhorn Invitational on Friday beginning with a matchup against the Houston Cougars at 6:00 PM.