{"id":323942,"date":"2026-06-05T11:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/323942\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T11:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:12:12","slug":"golden-why-texas-softballs-repeat-smells-like-a-dynasty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/323942\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden: Why Texas softball’s repeat smells like a dynasty"},"content":{"rendered":"

OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 The Texas Longhorns were fantastic.
And now, dynastic.
\u201cBack to back, baby,\u201d said coach Mike White<\/a> before leaving the postgame interview room with the big trophy under his arm Thursday night. White joined volleyball\u2019s\u00a0Jerritt Elliott as the latest two Texas coaches of traditional team sports to repeat in the modern era.<\/p>\n

The 4-1 win and dismissal of Texas Tech <\/a>for the second straight year in the Women\u2019s College World Series finale has placed the Horns as the big dog on the block with a chance for a three-peat in the cards with the battle-tested talent returning in 2027.
Devon Park is the house the Oklahoma Sooners built with eight\u00a0championships\u00a0but the Longhorns have taken up residence not only atop the softball world but in the heads of the Sooners dynasty and any would-be contenders to the throne.
And they will be back after posting a 53-12 mark.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have so much faith in this program,\u201d said catcher\u00a0Reese Atwood<\/a>, who leaves as a two-time national champion and one of the most decorated players in the sport\u2019s history. \u201cI believe that they can three-peat. I believe they can four-peat. I believe with the standards this program has set and just with the culture and the love that our support staff and everybody gives us that anything we want is possible.\u201d
This isn\u2019t hyperbole because the talent is there to do it again, starting with staff ace Teagan Kavan who became the first player to earn consecutive Most Outstanding Player awards.<\/p>\n

A team with championship DNA needs only a sliver of a break to make an opponent pay and the Horns took advantage of Tech shortstop Hailey Toney\u2019s throwing error to erase a 1-0 deficit with a pair of runs in the fifth inning.\u00a0\u00a0
It was all Kavan needed. She replaced Gutierrez \u2014 who sparkled with 4 1\/3 innings of three-hit ball in her final college game\u00a0\u2014 in the sixth and struck out the side, including\u00a0Toney who she caught looking with a filthy changeup.<\/p>\n

As the Horns celebrated, M.C. Hammer\u2019s smash hit “U Can\u2019t Touch This”\u00a0 blared from the stadium\u2019s speakers.
Mr. Burrell\u2019s words rang true. Kavan sat down six batters and struck out five on just 28 pitches. She isn’t a strikeout machine in the mode of her mentor Cat Osterman but she always saves her best for OKC.
\u201cThis is what you dream about,\u201d Kavan said. \u201cThis is why\u00a0we work hard for this moment. This exact moment right here.\u201d<\/p>\n

One year after third baseman Mia Scott<\/a>\u2019s grand slam capped off an historic career to spark the program’s first natty, the Horns returned a deeper ballclub and spread the wealth behind Kavan\u2019s brilliance.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Cedric Golden\u2019s newsletter<\/a> for hot takes and expert analysis each Tuesday on Texas Longhorns football and beyond. \u00a0It’s called Ced\u2019s Corner, from the mind of the American-Statesman\u2019s resident sports columnist who was named the NSMA’s 2025 Texas Sportswriter of the Year.
White told me that repeating was more difficult than winning the first one because there were bumps.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had ups and downs throughout the season without a doubt,\u201d White said. \u201cThere\u2019s still some growth for us to do but that\u2019s part of this game. If you stay level, I think we can get to where we have everything working.”<\/p>\n

Sure, Atwood,\u00a0Gutierrez, and right fielder Ashton\u00a0Maloney will take their leave but the Horns are returning superstars in Kavan \u2014 who has ascended up the chart of all-time Longhorn greats \u2014 first baseman Katie Stewart and center fielder Kayden Henry along with second baseman Leighann Goode, DP\/pitcher Hannah Wells and shortstop Viviana Martinez<\/a>, to name a few.
The Horns simply wouldn\u2019t die in this tourney. They went 6-0 in elimination games and stunned Tennessee with a doubleheader sweep when the only other option was going home. It brings to mind\u00a0what Houston Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said after his team won a second straight title in 1995.
\u201cNever underestimate the heart of a champion.”
The Horns are well past being underestimated.
Oklahoma still has the most hardware but the Horns have arrived.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 The Texas Longhorns were fantastic.And now, dynastic.\u201cBack to back, baby,\u201d said coach Mike White before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11511,46014,96710,63519,47588,56161,27,29,537,28703,28],"class_list":["post-323942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-cedric-golden","tag-college-softball","tag-columnist-opinions","tag-mike-white","tag-reese-atwood","tag-teagan-kavan","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-longhorns-softball","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323942","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=323942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}