Mike White honors mom who died from cancer as Texas battles OU at WCWS

Texas coach Mike White took a moment during Wednesday night’s Women’s College World Series finals opening game against Oklahoma to honor his mom, who died from cancer.

All of the players and coaches from both teams held up signs with names of people that they are fighting for while cancer survivors were honored on the field at the WCWS ahead of the fourth inning.

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ESPN’s Holly Rowe asked Mike White about his sign and who he is fighting for.

“My family. My mom, she died of brain cancer when I was about 22 years old,” Mike White said. “And then my brother-in-law, Jim Black, married to my sister, he died of throat cancer. So cancer touches everybody. It’s a tough disease and hopefully can find a cure one day.

It was a touching moment as the two rivals face off in Game 1 of the best-of-three series.

Mike White staying positive after Texas falls behind

As for the play on the field, Oklahoma has used the long ball to jump out in front of the Longhorns. Three different players have homered for the Sooners, who lead 5-1 in the fourth inning.

White was asked what his team must do to get some momentum and try to sustain it.

“Yea, I mean it’s tough right now. We’re down against a really good club and [Kelly] Maxwell’s super tough. We’ve got to find a way to claw back into it. I was hoping we’d get one run back last inning but it didn’t work out. We’ve just got to keep fighting. That’s what we’ve done all year.”

The Longhorns are facing off against Oklahoma pitcher Kelly Maxwell, who is one of the best in the country.

The senior entered Saturday’s game with a 2.00 ERA. Mike White shared what makes it so difficult to get offense going against Maxwell.

“Well, she has several different speeds, so it’s tough. But first of all we’ve got to get strikes,” he said. “That’s what we’re not doing right now. We’ve got to get balls in the zone we can handle.”

White spoke ahead of the rivalry matchup about the need to play the game just like any other game. However, his team struggled to do that early on. Texas has walked two batters, hit two more, thrown three wild pitches and committed an error. They will have to get the bats going to get back in the game.