No. 1 Texas wins third consecutive SEC series, tops No. 18 Mississippi State 7-2
AUSTIN (KXAN) — No. 1 Texas bounced back to win the final two games against No. 18 Mississippi State to claim another Southeastern Conference softball series with a 7-2 win Sunday in Starkville, Mississippi.
The teams played a doubleheader Friday to let bad weather pass through the area Saturday. The Bulldogs won the opener 4-3 and Texas won the second game 7-3.
On Sunday, Joley Mitchell hit a 2-run home run, part of a 4-run fifth inning for the Longhorns, and Teagan Kavan was strong in the circle to earn her 15th win. Kavan allowed three hits with seven strikeouts and two walks in six innings.
"We went into a little bit of a lull, offensively, during the middle innings, but found a way to explode back in the top of the fifth," Longhorns head coach Mike White said. "So we did a good job of creating some distance between us and them."
MORE THAN THE SCORE: Stay up to date on sports stories like these, and sign up for our More than the Score sports newsletter at kxan.com/newsletters
Ashton Maloney, Kayden Henry, Katie Stewart and Mitchell all had two hits. Maloney and Henry hit back-to-back triples to start the game, and Henry delivered an RBI double in the fifth. Mia Scott smacked an RBI single to score Henry, and Mitchell's blast capped the Longhorns' big fifth inning.
In the second game Friday, Texas blew up for five runs in the seventh to claim it. Mitchell hit a solo home run and Scott crushed a 3-run homer, her second dinger of the game, to fuel the surge. Citlaly Gutierrez earned the pitching win in relief and Kavan picked up her first save. Gutierrez allowed a run on three hits with five strikeouts in 4.1 innings pitched.
Texas (34-3, 7-2 SEC) doesn't have a midweek game and can focus on a weekend series on the road against Missouri. White said his club can't afford to lose focus against anybody in the SEC because the conference is incredibly deep.
"It’s about us and the attitude we bring. We have to have that killer attitude because every team in this conference is very good," he said. "We have to bring our best stuff, and if you don’t, you get beat, and that’s evident, so we have to be prepared for that."