Baylor Softball's Season Ends in 7-0 Loss to No. 2 Texas in Austin Regional
The Baylor softball team knew they had an uphill battle, squaring off with No. 2 Texas in the Austin Regional Final.
The Longhorns had outscored the Bears 21-2 in the regular season game and had two run-rule wins to open up regional play.
While Baylor (30-28) trailed by just four runs after five innings, Texas (45-10) opened it up with a trio of solo home runs in the sixth as the Bears’ season ended in a 7-0 loss on Sunday at Red & Charline McCombs Field.
Over the course of her career, Texas pitcher Teagan Kavan has had Baylor’s number, and that stayed the same on Sunday.
Her seven-inning, three-hit performance on Sunday adds to her career totals against the Bears, giving up just eight hits and one run in 24.1 innings of work, while striking out 26.
Baylor got the leadoff hitter to begin the game as Brooklyn Carter beat out a bunt and Sa’Mya Jones hit a dribbler that looked to have forced a throwing error that would put the Bears on second and third with no one out. It went to review, and Jones was tagged with runner's interference and Carter was sent back to first.
The next Baylor base runner didn’t come until the sixth, when pinch-hitting Kaci West laced a double into the left-center gap. Toven ended her Baylor career with an infield single in the seventh to mark the Bears’ third hit.
The Texas corner infielders played aggressively close to take out Baylor’s small ball game, and the infield as a whole was clean with no errors.
On Baylor’s end in the circle, Peyton Tanner put together a valiant performance, throwing 5.1 innings and giving up just four earned runs, two of them not coming until the fifth. She also had a couple of fielding errors that cost the Bears.
The Bears trailed, 4-0 in the fifth, but the Longhorns got to Tanner as Kayden Henry tagged a ball off the scoreboard in center field. The first pitch of the next at-bat, Katie Stewart smacked her second homer of the day to make it 6-0.
Reese Atwood added a third homer in the inning to conclude the scoring.
Five of the Longhorns’ seven runs came from Katie Stewart and Kayden Henry as they combined for five hits and three homers.
Both of Baylor’s pitchers who threw Sunday and seven starters in the lineup have eligibility to return, with just four seniors in the program, two of them being starters in Carter and Amber Toven.
The Bears will enter the off-season with some momentum, with a Regional Final appearance, alongside the potential of an abundance of returners, to go with a couple of incoming freshmen.
