Teagan Kavan, Texas show grit in securing back-to-back titles

Junior right-hander Teagan Kavan become the first player to ever win back-to-back Most Outstanding Player recognition in the Women’s College World Series after the Texas Longhorns secured back-to-back national titles with a 4-1 win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Wednesday in Oklahoma City as Kavan came on in relief to strike out five over two perfect innings.

Kavan had already positioned the Longhorns for another title after pitching a complete game on Tuesday, allowing three runs on three hits with six strikeouts in the wake of two complete-game performance last year for Texas when it secured its first championship by beating Texas Tech and ace NiJaree Canady.

The two victories in this year’s finals continued Kavan’s dominance in head-to-head matchups — while Canady ends her stellar career as one of the best pitchers in college softball history, Kavan cemented her place as one of the game’s most clutch pitchers, and still has a year remaining.

That makes Kavan a Longhorn legend with one more year to further cement her place in school history.

And then there’s slugger Katie Stewart, another junior who helped launch Texas out of the loser’s bracket with four straight wins in elimination games and into the finals, hitting home runs in four straight games, totaling seven RBI.

On Thursday, the fear of pitching to Stewart helped key the go-ahead fifth inning for the Longhorns. After giving up back-t0-back singles to lead off the inning, Canady retired the next two batters, but head coach Gerry Glasco called for an intentional walk of Stewart, loading the bases for junior shortstop Viviana Martinez, who chopped a ball into the hole on the left side, forcing a poor decision by the Texas Tech shortstop, who tried to throw late to third and threw it away, allowing two runs to score.

A leadoff home run by junior center fielder Kayden Henry in the seventh and an RBI single by senior second baseman Leighann Goode secured the win for the Horns.

Now cemented as a national power and having gotten past four-time champion Oklahoma to beat Texas Tech in two straight seasons, there’s a returning core for head coach Mike White next season, led by Kavan and Stewart, that should make Texas a contender once again in 2027.