Texas softball upsets No. 13 Washington, advances to super regionals
SEATTLE (KXAN) —The Texas Longhorns softball team did it the hard way Sunday, but they are moving on to the super regionals.
After dropping the first game to 13th-seeded and host Washington Huskies 2-1, the Longhorns responded with a 3-2 win in the second game to capture the Seattle regional to extend the team's season.
Bella Dayton provided the initial tallies for the Longhorns, a 2-run double in the fifth inning to give Texas a 2-0 lead. The inning was extended after Washington pitcher Gabbie Plain was called for an illegal pitch to Janae Jefferson on what appeared to be a fly-out to left field. That would have ended the inning, but Plain jumped during her delivery and the play was nullified.
Jefferson then singled, stole second and Mia Scott walked to set the table for Dayton. Dayton drove an 0-2 pitch from Plain to the left-center field wall and bring both around to score.
Jefferson provided what proved to be the game-winning run for Texas in the top of the seventh inning with a solo home run over the right-field wall for a 3-0 lead. It was her second homer of the regional round and fifth of the season.
The Huskies capitalized on a Texas fielding error to push across their first run in the bottom half. Sami Reynolds reached on the error, and then came all the way around from first base to score on a double by Brooke Nelson to make it 3-1 Longhorns.
After Texas pitcher Hailey Dolcini struck out Riley Holtorf, Jenn Cummings smacked an RBI single to draw the Dawgs even closer at 3-2.
Dolcini then struck out Kinsey Fiedler with the tying run on first base to send the Longhorns on. Dolcini scattered seven hits and struck out four with a walk in the victory, her 21st of the year in the circle.
Jefferson, Scott and Dayton each had two hits for Texas.
With the win, Texas advances to the super regionals round on Memorial Day weekend against No. 4-seeded Arkansas. The best-of-three series will be in Fayetteville, and the winner will advance to the Women's College World Series. Arkansas beat the Oregon Ducks 9-3 in its regional championship to advance.
Texas became the fifth unseeded team to advance into the 16-team super regionals round. Mississippi State knocked off No. 2 Florida State, Oregon State took out No. 11 Tennessee, Stanford topped No. 6 Alabama and Arizona beat No. 15 Missouri.
Top-seeded Oklahoma flexed its muscles with a 20-0 win over Texas A&M to move on.