Texas softball\u2019s first conference series against South Carolina last weekend allowed fans to catch a glimpse of a team that isn\u2019t coasting on its ace pitcher and isn\u2019t rattled when mistakes are made.<\/p>\n
The Longhorns swept the Gamecocks in Columbia, South Carolina, in a display of mental toughness and the ability to adapt when mistakes were made. Despite over half of Texas\u2019 games ending in run-rule victories going into the weekend, Texas played all 21 innings and outscored South Carolina 12-4.<\/p>\n
Texas\u2019 pitching was one of the main reasons the Longhorns were able to clinch their first series against a Southeastern Conference opponent. Junior pitcher Teagan Kavan threw a total of eight innings across the weekend in a full game on Friday and the bottom of the seventh inning on Saturday to secure a title as the SEC Pitcher of the Week. She recorded a .88 ERA and surrendered one earned run on six hits.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think in any opportunity we get where we\u2019ve got a lead, and we can hang onto it by using our ace, I think we\u2019ll do that,\u201d head coach Mike White said. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to overwork anybody, and not only is it physically tough, it\u2019s mentally tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senior pitcher Citlaly Gutierrez started and pitched six innings in Saturday\u2019s shutout, giving up just four hits in 22 at-bats and a lone wild pitch early in the first inning. Freshman pitcher Hannah Wells got the start on Sunday, with sophomore pitcher Cambria Salmon wrapping up the game in 1.1 innings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
White is pleased that the pitching depth allows Kavan to rest while giving underclassmen opportunities to grow against opponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more we can save her and keep her fresh, the better,\u201d White said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to be able to use everybody to give them opportunities as well and be ready for a deep run.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with a stacked pitching roster, Texas\u2019 defense can\u2019t get complacent. White noted that the team still has to clean up its errors if it wants to be fighting for another championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have a number of errors, though,\u201d White said. \u201cWe are making some mistakes. We were just fortunate that our pitching was able to shore that up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across three games, Texas committed four fielding errors, but combined with the pitching, the Longhorns were able to secure all three wins. The infield is still committed to cleaning up its performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving a lot of veterans on the infield with (senior infielder ) Leighann (Goode), and (junior infielder Viviana Martinez), and so having their presence there, it really helps us stay connected,\u201d junior catcher and infielder Katie Stewart said last week ahead of the South Carolina series.<\/p>\n
Texas plays East Texas A&M on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. at Red & Charline McCombs Field.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas softball\u2019s first conference series against South Carolina last weekend allowed fans to catch a glimpse of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-199245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-texas","9":"tag-texas-headlines","10":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}