No. 3 Texas held off No. 19 Arizona State 4-3 on Saturday night at McCombs Field, getting a go-ahead two-run home run from Victoria Hunter in the sixth inning to force a winner-takes-all Game 3 in the NCAA Austin Super Regional.
The Longhorns, now 46-11, erased a 2-0 deficit with two runs in the top of the fifth and then answered again after Arizona State briefly reclaimed the lead. Texas will play Arizona State at 3:30 p.m. CT Sunday, May 24, with a berth in the Women's College World Series on the line, and the game will be broadcast on.
Hunter's shot came with senior right fielder Ashton Maloney aboard after she reached on a single to left and moved to second. It was the swing that finished a rally Texas had spent much of the night building one piece at a time. Katie Stewart doubled down the left field line to score Kaiah Altmeyer and cut the lead to 2-1 in the fifth, and Reese Atwood followed with an RBI single up the middle to bring Stewart home and tie it at 2-2. After Arizona State answered with a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth to go back in front 3-2, Hunter delivered with two outs in the sixth.
Senior right-hander Citlaly Gutierrez earned the win to improve to 9-3, working 5.0 innings of relief and allowing one run on three hits with six strikeouts. She entered in the bottom of the third with runners at the corners and nobody out after Arizona State scored in the second and third innings to build its 2-0 lead. Texas improved to 7-1 in the postseason and has won eight of its last nine games, while snapping Arizona State's season-long 10-game win streak.
The result kept Texas alive in its home regional and turned Sunday into a decisive final game. Texas has already taken three wins over top-20 opponents in the postseason, and now it gets one more chance to extend that run and reach Oklahoma City.
