Texas softball's repeat title chances take hit in WCWS loss to Tennessee
· Yahoo Sports
Texas softball knows what it takes to bounce back.
The defending national champions did not begin their title defense run at the Women's College World Series as they would have hoped, with a 6-3 loss to Tennessee in the opening game Thursday at Devon Park.
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Just a week ago, the Longhorns dropped the first game of the Austin Super Regional against Arizona State. Then, they went on to win the last two to secure their WCWS spot.
So yes, Texas is making its way to the elimination bracket and will face Mississippi State in a win-or-go-home game Friday, but its WCWS dreams are not over just yet.
"A lot of it could have been we were worried about what they were going to do," head coach Mike White said. "Who was going to pitch. Really, the focus needed to be on us and what we were going to do."
A late-game, two-run homer from Leighann Goode showed the fight within the team, but it was too little too late, as Tennessee also scored a pair of runs in the last two innings.
Texas' motto, as chanted by Longhorn fans in every game, is "Texas Fight," and that's in the DNA of this team.
"It's the culture, the standards that Coach White and the rest of the coaching staff have put into us," Reese Atwood said. "I mean, we're going to go out there and we're going to Texas Fight, do everything we can. Pretty or ugly, we're going to get the job done to win."
White does not know why his players did not perform to their full potential against Tennessee, and he might be up at 2 a.m., wondering what happened. They weren't sick, they weren't hurt. The team is used to playing under pressure, but maybe they were too in their heads?
But now it matters more what they can do to come back than what they didn't do. They know what's at stake if the team can't get its game together Friday evening.
"The game doesn't know it's our last game tomorrow, could be our last game," White said. "The game is going to reward the team that plays the best and executes the opportunities. That's what we have to do. We got to do the small game that we usually do. We didn't get any short game. We had a couple of opportunities, maybe got one in-field hit with Maloney. That's what sets our table for us.
"We've just got to execute better, have better at-bats. Going to go back and look at the tape. It's hard to see from the side. Were we chasing? Expanding the strike zones. Those are the things that we need to make adjustments to. But I don't know from the side."
The Longhorns will not be playing any Mississippi State team; they'll be facing the roster that eliminated OU from the super regionals in their own backyard. The Bulldogs were run-ruled by Texas Tech in the first game, but just like Texas will bring in a fight, so will the Bulldogs.
"We're not going to underestimate them at all," White said. "They have a great pitching staff. Timely hitting. They want to compete. They want to play. That was one of the disappointments, I think, we didn't compete as hard as we could have today."
Isa Almeida is a trending reporter for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Isa? She can be reached at [email protected] or on X/Twitter at @ialmeidasports. Support Isa's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Texas softball's title defense takes hit in WCWS loss to Tennessee