Texas squeaks past Stanford to advance to WCWS final

No. 1 Texas softball slipped past the No. 8 Stanford Cardinal to punch their ticket to the Women's College World Series final with a tight 1-0 win on June 3 in the semifinal. Alyssa Washington beat out a tag at home on a bunt from Ashton Maloney that scored the de facto game-winning run for Texas to advance to the WCWS final.

No. 1 Texas softball back in the Women's College World Series final

The play that made it happen was a bunt by Maloney with two runners in scoring position and no one out in the top of the seventh inning. Washington was caught in a jam, but her speed won the day as she beat the tag at home to get Texas on the board in the most clutch of moments in the Women's College World Series semifinal.

The captain Washington made a play when Texas needed it the most and she delivered when it mattered most.

Head coach Mike White and the Longhorns swept side 1 of the Women's College World Series bracket to advance to the final for the second time in the last three years. Texas also shut out every opponent it faced in the WCWS thus far, including two goose eggs that the pitching staff spun against Stanford.

The Longhorns also shut out the No. 4 Florida Gators in a dominant 10-0 run-rule victory in five innings on June 1.

Teagan Kavan was brilliant on the mound for the Longhorns, pitching another one-hit shutout against the Cardinal in Oklahoma City, OK. Kavan registered one-hit shutout victories in both starts against Stanford on May 30 and June 3.

You could argue that Kavan was even better in this win over Stanford than she was the first time these two teams met in OKC a few days ago. Kavan only allowed two batters to get on base, with one walk and one hit allowed. She struck out a combined 15 of the 48 Stanford batters she faced in these two contests.

Texas defeated Stanford by a combined margin of 5-0 in these two games in OKC in the last few days.

Washington, Kavan, and the Longhorns await the winner of the do-or-die semifinal/elimination game between the No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners and No. 4 Florida in side 2 of the bracket tomorrow. Florida sent their semifinal against Oklahoma to a winner-take-all semifinal game on June 4 after upsetting the Sooners 9-3 on June 3.

The winner of the June 4 do-or-die semifinal game between Oklahoma and Florida will face Texas in a best two games out of three final to decide the Women's College World Series champion. Texas has never won a national championship in softball before. Oklahoma, meanwhile, is trying to defend their five straight titles dating back to the late 2010s.

Game 1 of the Women's College World Series final begins June 5 at 7 p.m. CT.

You can follow the live updating bracket for the Women's College World Series on NCAA.com here.

Read more on the latest news for the Texas Longhorns on Hook'em Headlines