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Texas softball advances to the championship series with back-to-back wins over Tennessee

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook06/01/26josephcook89

The Texas Longhorns will have the chance to defend their softball national championship. Texas, needing two wins against Tennessee on Monday in order to advance to the championship series, took down the other UT two times in one day to advance to the final two. Texas won game one 5-2 then prevailed 4-0 in game two.

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In the bottom of the third of the second and deciding game, Texas started with back to back singles before Katie Stewart grounded out to put runners in scoring position with one out. Viviana Martinez then legged out an infield single that brought one runner home.

Then, when Martinez was swiping second the very next at bat, Kayden Henry sprinted home when the ball got away from the Tennessee infielder for the second run of the inning. Texas plated a third run when Reese Atwood doubled to left-center to bring in Martinez.

Stewart homered, her 30th of the season, in the fifth inning to make it 4-0 Texas. It was her second homer of the day against the Vols. She became the second player in SEC history alongside Oklahoma’s Kendall Wells this year to hit 30 homers in a season.

Texas sent Teagan Kavan to the circle while the Volunteers relied on fireballer Karlyn Pickens. While Pickens gave up four earned runs, Kavan shut out the Vols. Her final line was 7.0 IP, two hits, and nine strikeouts on 112 pitches.

Earlier in the day, Citlaly Gutierrez pitched 6.2 innings and earned the win while Kavan entered for the final out to notch the save against the Volunteers.

The win puts Texas in the championship series for the fourth time in the past five years. Texas fell in 2022 and 2024 but defeated Texas Tech in the championship series in 2025 to take home the program’s first national title. The Longhorns will face who ever prevails from the opposite side of the bracket between Alabama and Texas Tech.

The championship series begins on Wednesday and is a best-of-three. All three games begin at 7 p.m. and ESPN will televise each contest.

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