Hard-hitting Texas meets stingy Tennessee pitching in SEC softball clash
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Something has to give this weekend at McCombs Field.
Top-ranked Texas, the No. 2 team in the country in batting average, meets No. 7 Tennessee, the nation’s leader in ERA, for a 3-game series beginning at 8 p.m. Friday in Austin. The opening game will be aired on ESPNU, with the second game on ESPN at 5 p.m., Saturday. The series concludes with the third game at noon Sunday. It will stream on SEC Network+.
The Longhorns (38-3, 10-2 SEC) sit a game ahead of rival Oklahoma for first place in the Southeastern Conference, and taking at least two from the Lady Vols in front of “rowdy” fans will help them keep that leverage.
“It’s a nice environment here,” Longhorns head coach Mike White said. “It’s going to be really fun.”
It’s a classic strength against strength matchup. The Longhorns clobber the ball, hitting .382 with a slugging percentage of .683 — No. 4 in the country — to go with 404 hits. Tennessee, on the other hand, has an ERA of 1.68, allowing 60 earned runs in 250 innings. The Lady Vols’ staff also leads the country by allowing an average of four hits per every seven innings.
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Texas isn’t a slouch in the circle, either. The Longhorns sport a 1.98 ERA with 5.14 hits allowed per seven innings, and a main reason is the emergence of sophomore Teagan Kavan as the team’s ace.
White said she’s developed and matured into someone he can depend on.
“You don’t want to lose with your best on the bench,” White said, “and she’s proven to be our best, so we give her the most opportunities until proven otherwise.”
Kavan is 17-2 on the year with a 1.51 ERA and 156 strikeouts in 111.1 innings. She doesn’t issue many walks, either, just 23, to put her strikeout-to-walk ratio at 6.78, No. 7 in the country. There’s no question who will get the ball under the lights Friday on national TV.
“She leads with some passion now, and it has been great to see her give some emotion, but she keeps it under control,” White said. “We’ve used her in multiple situations, to start games or finish them, and she’s really done the job for us.”
White also mentioned the possibility of Kavan making the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics roster, and while Kavan isn’t focused on that right now, she thinks it would be pretty cool.
“As it gets closer, and we see things about it, and yeah, it’s obviously a goal,” she said. “Me and Reese (Atwood) talk about a lot, and that’s where we want to end up. It’s coming up, so we’re taking little steps striving to get there.”
Softball is making a return to the Olympics after being out of the programme since the 2020 Tokyo Games. The tournament will be played at Devon Park in the USA Softball Hall of Fame complex in Oklahoma City.
First things first, however, and that’s trying to beat a Tennessee squad that’s 32-8 overall and 7-5 in the SEC. They have a pitcher who has the world record for the fastest softball pitch ever thrown. Karlyn Pickens let one rip at 78.2 mph March 24 against Arkansas, so it’s safe to say that the Longhorns could face some velocity they’ve never seen before.
