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Texas Softball faces Tennessee in the opening game of the WCWS 

by: Josh Florey05/28/26

After winning another nerve-wracking super regional, the Texas Longhorns advanced to their third straight WCWS and fourth in the last five years. 

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The Longhorns have made it to the championship series in their last three appearances, falling to Oklahoma in the first two and defeating Texas Tech last season for their first national title. 

In game one of the super regional, Arizona State’s Kenzie Brown was unhittable, striking out 10 Longhorns and only allowing one run on a Hannah Wells home run. The ASU batters were able to string together hit after hit against Teagan Kavan, defeating Texas 4-1. 

But, the Horns are used to losing game ones in the super regionals, as they have lost seven straight. 

Last season, Clemson beat them in game one, and had the Horns on the ropes in game two before Texas managed to pull out the series. The series against A&M two seasons ago was very similar.

In game two, the Horns were down 3-2 before pinch hitter Victoria Hunter hit a go-ahead two-run HR to put Texas up 4-3. The defense held and Texas won game two before beating the Sun Devils 5-0 in game three.

Now, Texas will face the Tennessee Volunteers. 

Even as SEC foes, the two teams have not faced off this season.  

The strength of the Volunteers is definitely the pitching staff. Tennessee has an elite trio of pitchers in Karlyn Pickens, Sage Mardjetko, and Erin Nuwer. Pickens and Mardjetko were both on Softball America’s All-America second team. Nuwer leads the team with a 0.99 ERA. Pickens throws fire, holding the record for fastest pitch in NCAA softball history, and will most likely be the starting pitcher against the Horns. Her ERA is third on the team at 1.53. 

Offensively, Sophia Knight has been on a tear, with a HR in both super regional games against Georgia. She also leads the team in AVG by a large margin at .410. Alannah Leach is the next highest at .325. 

For the Horns to win, they once again need Kavan to play like she did last WCWS and in game three of the super regional. Even with a very good Texas offense, runs will be very hard to come by and Kavan, and possibly Citlaly Gutierrez, need to shut down the Tennessee offense. 

The winner of the battle of the UTs will face the winner of the Mississippi State vs. Texas Tech game in the winner’s bracket game.

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