Your National Championship-defending Texas Longhorns are heading back to the Women's College World Series final after fighting their way back through the losers' bracket to punch their ticket to the championship series.
Texas lost to the Tennessee Volunteers in the first game of this year's WCWS, but then went on to defeat the Mississippi State Bulldogs and Nebraska Cornhuskers in the losers' bracket before earning two straight victories over Tennessee in the semifinals.
The secret ingredient that the Longhorns had in the semifinal matchups that they didn't have in the first game of the World Series? Senior catcher Reese Atwood found her batting.
Texas softball exacts revenge and then some on Tennessee
In the first semifinal matchup, Atwood smacked a home run to center field, her first WCWS home run in her illustrious career.
Throughout the game, Texas earned an impressive five runs, including Atwood's homer, and pushed across the plate by three hits apiece for Katie Stewart, Vivi Martinez, and Kaiah Altmeyer.
Additionally, pitcher Citlaly Gutierrez threw for 6.2 innings, giving up just five hits and only two runs. Star pitcher Teagan Kavan came in to close the deal, earning a strikeout for the final out of the game.
In Game 2, the matchup that would determine which team would head to the Women's College World Series final and which would head home, Atwood was at it again.
During an extremely busy third inning for the Longhorns, Atwood hit a double to left field, bringing Martinez home to score the run, putting Texas up 3-0 over the Volunteers. Two innings later, the always reliable Katie Stewart knocked yet another postseason homer out of the park to put the Horns up 4-0 with just two innings remaining.
In the second game, Kavan was back in the circle and absolutely dominated, exacting her own personal revenge on the Horns, pitching a nearly perfect game to hold Tennessee scoreless while giving up just two hits and racking up 10 strikeouts.
With the two wins, Texas headed back to the finals, continuing its charge to defend the National Championship from last season.
The Longhorns will face the Alabama Crimson Tide or the Texas Tech Red Raiders, the very team that the Horns defeated in last year's Women's College World Series final.
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