Mike White Explains Why Texas Softball Must Improve to Repeat as National Champions
After winning its first-ever National Championship in 2025, the Texas Longhorns are reloading.
With three major transfer portal moves that ranked the team No.12 overall by Softball America, and seven incoming freshmen, nearly its entire stunning lineup returns from the Women’s College World Series (WCWS), aside from star third baseman Mia Scott and first baseman Joley Mitchell.
While much adversity was overcome last season, on paper, the 2026 roster looks heavenly. But head coach Mike White isn’t getting too far ahead of himself. While he is ready to build on that historic run, he believes the team still has a long waay to go if they want to repeat.
“Do you want to try and repeat? It’s the process you have to focus on,” White told Brady Vernon at Softball America. “When you look back at how good we were as a program, regardless of the national championship, we still have a lot to work on. We have to improve in the pitching area, defense, and offense; the better we do in those areas, the more likely we are to be there in the end. The key is consistency, and for us, we just have to be better than we were last year.”
Going into her junior season, Teagan Kavan is the leader of the circle. Though she struggled a bit in the beginning of the postseason, she showed up powerful when it mattered the most, to take down the threatening bats of Texas Tech. Her adapted drop ball contributed highly to lowering her home run percentage, and she didn’t allow a single earned run across 31 innings in the WCWS.
If Texas wants to stay No.1, it will be vital that Kavan doesn’t get overworked. With Mac Morgan gone, Citlaly Gutierrez returns for her senior season and will most likely be the key behind Kavan, as she is experienced as a starter and reliever.
Hannah Wells, the 2025 National Gatorade Player of the Year, joins the Texas pitching staff as well as Texas Tech transfer Brenlee Gonzales, the team’s sole lefty. Both of these additions have been working endlessly this fall to become comfortable taking on a potential role on the mound.
With senior Reese Atwood carrying nearly every Texas offensive record under the sun, the Texas lineup will have a different feel as well. Former hitting coach Steve Singleton left in August to take the role of head coach with Cal softball, and Ehren Earleywine was hired as an associate head coach in replacement.
Viviana Martinez will return to the lineup after missing the past season due to a knee injury, and her plate and shortstop presence is expected to fill a hole that has been missing. She hit .376 with 26 extra-base hits and 52 RBIs in 2024.
“She was a leader for us and another coach when she was off the field,” White told Softball America. “She’s so even-keeled. You can lean on her in big moments. She hasn’t quite regained her form with the bat, but she’s shown progress lately. Coming back from such a long layover, it takes time to get used to things again. She looks really good at shortstop.”
The Longhorns’ biggest get from the portal, Kaiah Altmeyer, joins from Arizona and brings a load of talent with her. She ranked fifth in program history for doubles (19) in a single season and led the Big 12 conference in doubles, which landed her on the All-Big 12 second team.
Other strong returners like Ashton Maloney are expected to keep rolling, as she hit .415 as the leadoff hitter in 2025.
Softball America took a stab at the projected lineup, and it’s certainly overflowing with talent, but the team will have to stay consistent if they want to succeed, just like they managed in 2025.
Texas Longhorns Projected Lineup
- C Reese Atwood
- 1B Katie Stewart
- 2B Leighann Goode
- SS Viviana Martinez
- 3B Jaycie Nichols/MaTaia Lawson
- LF Kaiah Altmeyer
- CF Kayden Henry
- RF Ashton Maloney
- DP Jaycie Nichols/MaTaia Lawson/Alisa Sneed/Hannah Wells
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Nicole Reitz graduated from Indiana University Indianapolis with a degree in sports journalism in 2022 and has been writing about softball and baseball since 2018 .Her work has been published in various publications like Softball America, the Indianapolis Star, and SoxOn35th.
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