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2026 WCWS: Texas beats Tennessee, forces if necessary game

Screenshot 2024-07-31 at 7.46.34 PMby: Brady Vernon06/01/26BradyVernon

Texas head coach Mike White admitted after Thursday’s loss that his team wasn’t as prepared as they needed to be for Sage Mardjetko. That certainly wasn’t the case on Monday. The Longhorns scored the most runs of any team against Mardjetko this season on their way to a 5-2 win over Tennessee, forcing another WCWS semifinal game.

Mardjetko entered to start the third and had retired the side quickly. Reese Atwood, whose at-bats have been much better on Sunday and Monday, lined one out to center for her first career WCWS home run to put Texas on the board in the fourth.

Katie Stewart, who struck out against Mardjetko in her first at-bat, muscled a ball out to left field to put the Longhorns back on top after Tennessee tied the game in the bottom half of the fourth. Texa kept rolling. Viviana Martinez lined a double right after Stewart. Atwood earned a walk after Mardjetko committed a pitch clock violation. Leighann Goode singled to right field to load the bases.

Freshman Hannah Wells stepped up with a chance to break the game open. She had hit two balls to the warning track her first two times in the batter’s box. Wells nearly hit it out again in the fifth. She hit a hard liner off the top of the wall in center to net two more runs for the Longhorns, and ending Marjetko’s day.

Nuwer re-entered and escaped a bases-loaded jam with a groundball double play. Nuwer threw well overall, but Texas tacked on an insurance run in the seventh. Wells singled and Kaiah Altmeyer, who had three hits, doubled to put two into scoring position. Wells then scored on a groundball.

Each team had early defensive miscues, but neither team capitalized on them. Texas struggled to make hard contact against the spinny Nuwer. However, Ella Dodge couldn’t handle a bouncer in the first inning, giving Texas an early chance after back-to-back singles – though it could’ve easily been ruled an error. Nuwer induced a pair of flyouts to end the threat.

Citlaly Gutierrez spun the ball well, rolling a ton of groundballs. To start the second inning, the ball rolled up on Jaycie Nichols at third. Dodge bounced one to Stewart on what appeared to be a double play opportunity, but she threw it into the outfield to put the first two Tennessee runners on. Gutierrez took matters into her own hands, striking out Gabby Leach on three pitches. She rolled another ball to Nichols, who turned the inning-ending double play.

In the third, Leighann Goode made a nice play on a slow roller off the bat of Bella Faw, but her throw hit the palm of Stewart’s glove and she dropped the throw. Faw moved over to third with two outs; however, Gutierrez stranded her there.

Gutierrez’s first free pass of the day hurt her. After walking Dodge, Leach roped a triple into the right field corner for a two-RBI, the Lady Vols’ first hit of the game. Gutierrez limited the damage, leaving Leach at third.

Gutierrez ran into trouble in the seventh. She allowed a single and a walk to put two runners on. Stewart committed another error on the ball with funky spin again to load the bases. Gutierrez got Alannah Leach to pop up for the second out. She rolled another bouncer but it was a tough play for Goode as Tennessee scored another run.

Texas then went to Teagan Kavan to face Elsa Morrison, who homered against her back on Thursday. This time, the All-American struck out the freshman, who represented the game-winning run, to close out the win.

Tennessee and Texas will face off again shortly on Monday, with Karlyn Pickens and Teagan Kavan facing off for a spot in the 2026 WCWS championship series.

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