{"id":313092,"date":"2026-05-28T23:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T23:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/313092\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T23:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T23:08:10","slug":"wcws-texas-coach-mike-white-wants-more-fight-vs-mississippi-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/313092\/","title":{"rendered":"WCWS: Texas coach Mike White wants more fight vs Mississippi State"},"content":{"rendered":"

OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 Immediately after Texas softball<\/a>\u2019s 6-3 loss to Tennessee<\/a> in its first game of the Women\u2019s College World Series, senior outfielder Ashton Maloney tried her best to lighten the mood after the locker-room team meeting.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMore games!\u201d screamed the fiery right-fielder, a redshirt senior who\u2019s the squad\u2019s most veteran player.<\/p>\n

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Hopefully more than one for the Longhorns, who suddenly face a must-win matchup with Mississippi State Friday at 6 p.m. in the loser\u2019s bracket of the WCWS. Beat the Bulldogs, and Texas advances to a Sunday meeting<\/a> with either Alabama, UCLA, Arkansas, or Nebraska.<\/p>\n

Lose to Mississippi State, however, and the Longhorns\u2019 defense of their national title last just two games and two days.<\/p>\n

But Maloney\u2019s outburst after the loss to Tennessee immediately helped Texas reset its mindset, said senior second baseman Leighann Goode.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just flipping that switch and being able to get back out there,\u201d said Goode, who tried to trigger a late, brief rally for Texas with a two-run homer off Tennessee ace Karlyn Pickens in the sixth inning.<\/p>\n

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Goode and the Longhorns didn\u2019t have to play back-to-back games last season since they didn\u2019t suffer their first loss until the second game of the championship series against Texas Tech. But instead of bemoaning the sudden back-to-the-wall circumstances, senior All-American catcher Reese Atwood says the Longhorns choose to embrace the challenge in her senior season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a bunch of other seniors on the team, so we’re kind of excited to have the opportunity to play more games in a Texas uniform,\u201d Atwood said. \u201cSo, just changing the perspective of it: More games, more time we get to spend with our teammates. It’s just being grateful and having the Texas across our chest one last time.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE: A marathon 17-pitch at-bat gives Texas’ Viviana Martinez her super playoff moment | Golden<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns head coach Mike White and associate head coach Kristen Zalenski watch from the dugout during the NCAA Softball Championship Super Regional against Arizona State at Red & Charline McCombs Field on Friday, May 22, 2026 in Austin.<\/p>\n

Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n

Teagan Kavan: Goes to bench as Mike White values rest for ace<\/p>\n

Texas coach Mike White seemed to have the next game on his mind when he pulled starting pitcher Teagan Kavan<\/a> after she gave up three hits and three runs through the first three innings. Kavan is used to bouncing back from slow starts and working long innings, but White eyed her 54-pitch count as well as the thermometer at Devon Park that showed temperatures in the low 90s and decided to rest his ace for Mississippi State.<\/p>\n

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He didn\u2019t have any regrets even after the Longhorns scored three runs.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust trying to change the momentum in the game,\u201d White said when asked about his decision to bring in Citlaly Gutierrez for the final four innings. \u201cSometimes, that can happen. I just felt like she (Kavan) wasn’t quite as sharp as she’s normally been, and if (we) weren’t going to come back and score runs, we had to try and conserve some energy on our pitching staff. So, just that; I kind of was looking ahead a little bit and also trying to kick start the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike White: Texas coach wants an \u2018underdog\u2019 mentality vs. Mississippi State<\/p>\n

White also gave his team a little kick in the shorts, especially since \u00a0the Longhorns face a scrappy Bulldog squad that\u2019s the only unseeded squad in the eight-team WCWS bracket.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey fight, they believe, they have the underdog mentality,\u201d White said about Mississippi State. \u201cIt’s not\u00a0like \u2018We’re not supposed to be here,\u2019 that’s what everybody else has said.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mississippi State earned its spot in Oklahoma City by stunning host Oklahoma<\/a> in last week\u2019s Norman Super Regionals. Not even an 8-0 mercy-rule loss to Texas Tech in the first game at the WCWS can dampen that enthusiasm, White said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s like when we were there in 2022,\u201d White said, referencing his team four years ago that reached Oklahoma City as an unranked team and made it all the way to the championship series before falling to Oklahoma. \u201cIt’s like we’re our most dangerous when you don’t think we’re capable of doing it, and we’re not going to underestimate (Mississippi State) at all. They have a great pitching staff. Timely hitting. They want to compete. They want to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

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And if the Longhorns can muster some of the underdog mentality, even better.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was one of the disappointments (today), I think,\u201d White said. \u201cWe didn’t compete as hard as we could have today. So, I just challenged the ladies there. Did you have some regrets on what you left out on the field? That’s the challenge, just make sure if we come off tomorrow, win or lose, whatever, that we’ve given everything we’ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 Immediately after Texas softball\u2019s 6-3 loss to Tennessee in its first game of the Women\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[46014,96448,790,27,29,537,28703,28,63517,63518],"class_list":["post-313092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-college-softball","tag-mississippi-state-softball","tag-tennessee-volunteers","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-longhorns-softball","tag-texas-news","tag-wcws","tag-women-s-college-world-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313092","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=313092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}