Teagan Kavan took the circle with Texas needing the final six outs and immediately punched out the side in the bottom of the sixth, putting the Longhorns three outs from back-to-back national titles in Game 2 of the Women’s College World Series finals.
That mattered because Texas Tech had spent most of the night making every run feel costly. NiJaree Canady had retired 11 straight batters before Texas finally cracked through in the fifth, when Viviana Martinez drove in two runs to flip the game into a 2-1 Texas lead. Teagan Kavan then gave Texas the kind of late relief it was searching for, and the moment was only bigger because she entered with the title within reach.
Texas had already leaned on a series of arms to get this far. The Longhorns had turned to Hannah Wells in the circle despite her having only three innings pitched this postseason, and head coach Mike White later went back to Citlaly Gutierrez to escape a bases-loaded jam. That path made Kavan’s entrance feel like the decisive move in a game that had been tight from the start.
Texas Tech struck first when Mihyia Davis, after recording her 39th stolen base of the season, scored on Lauren Allred’s single up the middle. The Longhorns answered in the fifth, and Kavan’s sixth-inning strikeouts gave Texas the breathing room it had not had for most of the night.
The next question was no longer whether Texas could get a key out. It was whether Kavan’s surge would finish the job and deliver the national championship before the sixth inning turned into something Texas had to survive all over again.
