OTF Premium Texas softball earns No. 1 seed, set to host Austin Regional

[Hank South]

After winning the SEC Tournament on Saturday evening, Texas softball (42-10, 16-8 SEC) has earned a No. 1 seed (No. 2 overall) in the 2026 NCAA Tournament. 

The Longhorns will host the Austin Regional from May 15-17, which will feature Wagner, Baylor, and Wisconsin coming to Red & Charline McCombs Field. 

Texas is the defending national champion and looks to be hitting its stride heading into postseason play after an impressive run in Lexington, Ky. 

"Obviously, I'd like to thank Kentucky for putting on a first-class tournament," UT head coach Mike White said on Saturday night. "The weather turned out great. The temperatures felt awesome after being in Austin where it could be a lot hotter. Of course,e congratulations to Alabama. The season they are having right now. They were picked ninth in the SEC and they've really showed everybody what kind of team they are. They are a great force, and they are going to have probably a great postseason as well. To my team, the resilience and the fight that they showed coming back against some teams that we've played before, never easy. And played some really good softball throughout the week. We had some hiccups here and there, but we bounced back and made the plays when he had to and of course had great pitching from Teagan Kavan." 

The Longhorns leaned on their ace pitcher last postseason, and will do so once again in the coming weeks. 

"I won't lie. For little girls that might be watching this out there. I think last night I kind of told myself, 'I'm kind of tired, I've kind of thrown a lot', and then I thought that's the fear of failure that's talking in my head," Kavan said after Saturday night's win. "I have to not listen to that. If I fear failure and I can't reach success, so just telling that voice to be quiet. I trust myself, no matter what it was going to be I was just going to compete. I just wanted to compete today for my team no matter if it was pretty or it was ugly." 

This story will be updated. 

[Hank South]

Mike White will talk to the media at 6:45 p.m. CT. 

[Hank South]

 

[dentonhorn]

Winner of Austin regional plays the winner of what regional ?

[LonghornFan4Ever]

Just now, dentonhorn said:

Winner of Austin regional plays the winner of what regional ?

If Texas wins their regional, they will potentially face No. 15 overall seed Texas A&M from the College Station Regional.

[Hank South]

16 minutes ago, dentonhorn said:

Winner of Austin regional plays the winner of what regional ?

 

[Hank South]

Mike White: 

"Being the number two seeds is awesome. Very excited about that and proud of the ability for the ladies to close season out strong. And then going into the championship, we're going to play Wagner the first game. We can't look past anybody, as I mentioned to the team, and then, of course, the winner of Wisconsin and Baylor, if we happen to win that first game."

[Hank South]

White:  "We peaked at the right time. We had everything happening. Everybody was hitting throughout the lineup."

[HookemTexas]

Top 8 seeds are tough, anyone one of them can win it all,  Texas plays like they did in the SEC tourney and they have a legit shot at repeating as champs.

[Hank South]

 

[horns96]

Damn, I thought we were fighting for a top 8 national seed, didn't expect to be #2 overall.

[HonkEm]

14 hours ago, LonghornFan4Ever said:

If Texas wins their regional, they will potentially face No. 15 overall seed Texas A&M from the College Station Regional.

If we play the Aggies, I expect at least three conspiracy theories before the third inning.

[HonkEm]

Don't know if this article by Thomas Jones of the AAS is behind a paywall or not, but a good read

https://www.statesman.com/sports/college/longhorns/softball/article/austin-regional-teams-ncaa-tournament-22252650.php

[dentonhorn]

Wonder what Mike’s strategy will be with Kavan in this opening game. Start but hope we score a lot early so she can come out?

[TexasEx_10]

1 minute ago, dentonhorn said:

Wonder what Mike’s strategy will be with Kavan in this opening game. Start but hope we score a lot early so she can come out?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this. Does Kavan even play in game 1? 

[HookemTexas]

50 minutes ago, TexasEx_10 said:

I’ve been thinking a lot about this. Does Kavan even play in game 1? 

Likely, you want that first win done and don’t want to take chances; additionally, it lets her keep her rhythm.  Then if you for some reason lose game 2, you still have Kavan for game 3 through the losers bracket elimination game.

[TexasEx_10]

1 hour ago, HookemTexas said:

Likely, you want that first win done and don’t want to take chances; additionally, it lets her keep her rhythm.  Then if you for some reason lose game 2, you still have Kavan for game 3 through the losers bracket elimination game.

I understand that but this is not a typical series. Texas is playing Wagner game 1. I can see several scenarios where TK either doesn’t play or has a limited role. It might even be pitch by committee, similar to game 2 of the OU series.
 

Last year, Kavan did not pitch in game 1 against Eastern Illinois; Cam started and pitched 3 innings, then Citlaly pitched 2 innings. Teagan started game 2 against Michigan and pitched 3.1 innings. Citlaly and Sophia Simpson finished the game. TK pitched the entire third game against UCF.

Texas needs Kavan for game 2 and 3, not Wagner. 

[HookemTexas]

1 hour ago, TexasEx_10 said:

I understand that but this is not a typical series. Texas is playing Wagner game 1. I can see several scenarios where TK either doesn’t play or has a limited role. It might even be pitch by committee, similar to game 2 of the OU series.
 

Last year, Kavan did not pitch in game 1 against Eastern Illinois; Cam started and pitched 3 innings, then Citlaly pitched 2 innings. Teagan started game 2 against Michigan and pitched 3.1 innings. Citlaly and Sophia Simpson finished the game. TK pitched the entire third game against UCF.

Texas needs Kavan for game 2 and 3, not Wagner. 

That's fair; so the regional is Wagner, Baylor and Wisconsin. 

Based on what you said, I could see it going like this (assuming the bats produce plenty of runs)
Game 1 against Wagner - Cam or Wells with the other spelling
Game 2 against either Baylor or Wisconsin - Citlaly or Gonzales with the committee to finish
Game 3 against the loser bracket - TK

Assumption is that Texas wins game 1; regardless of what happens in game 2, TK throws game 3.  If it gets to a game 4 for whatever reason, it's probably TK again or a mix of Citlaly and TK.

[dentonhorn]

Game 1 could be an opportunity to knock some rust off for others that will be needed. Balance the risk, start Guttierrz but have TK ready. If the offense goes well, let staff have an inning each.