Texas secures spot in WCWS champ series with win against Tennessee
The long ball has been Karlyn Pickens’ kryptonite during her time at the 2025 Women’s College World Series. Once again, one mistake proved costly for the Tennessee ace. Texas slugged Katie Stewart put one in the air in the fourth. At first, it appeared Tennessee left fielder Alannah Leach was camped under it for an out, but the ball kept going and going until it went over the wall for a solo home run.
That was all the run support that Mac Morgan and Teagan Kavan needed. The Texas duo shut out Tennessee in the Longhorns’ 2-0 win to head back to the championship series for the second straight year and third in the last four years.
Morgan got the ball for Texas to start the game. Unlike her outing against the Lady Vols back in April, she was able to keep the ball down. Morgan, who uses her dropball at an incredibly high rate, rolled six groundouts. This was arguably one of the best outings for the senior this season, who also struck out four in her four scoreless innings.
“She’s a senior. She wants it. She wants that redemption,” Texas head coach Mike White said. “She’s like one of those kids that lets stuff flow off of her. She’s not going to dwell on what happened in the past. We talked about that. Everybody needs to be where their feet are and be ready to contribute to the team and the program. And it’s always team before me, and she’s an epitome of that.”
After Stewart gave Texas the lead, the Longhorns went to Teagan Kavan to close things out. Kavan walked the first batter she faced, but retired the next three for a clean fifth inning. She didn’t allow a hit in three innings of relief.
“This is the best of the best,” said Weekly about Pickens, who gave up six homers at the World Series compared to six prior to Oklahoma City. “And so we faced some exceptional offenses. We faced OU. And then we faced Florida. And then we faced UCLA. Then we faced Texas. I can’t give you statistics, but you could put those in the top five offenses in the country.”
The Texas offense had its struggles in the regular season, stringing hits together against Pickens. Texas made decent contact the first time through the order despite what the box score read.
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“The whole game plan centered around being on time, just making our swing simple enough, just get on time because she’s going to throw hard. That was my whole approach at the plate all three at-bats,” Stewart said.
However, the mishits in the third inning gave them their first chance at a big inning. Kaydee Bennett hit a tapper to third base that Tennessee’s Taylor Pannell probably should’ve let bounce foul as she fielded it on the chalk line. The Lady Vols challenged the call, but the infield single was upheld.
Kayden Henry and her speed followed with her own infield single before Mia Scott loaded the bases by drawing a walk. That brought up Texas’ heavy hitters of Reese Atwood and Joley Mitchell with RBI chances. Pickens struck out Atwood with an off-speed pitch for the second time. The Tennessee worked back from a 3-0 count to get Mitchell to pop up and leave the bases loaded.
Stewart was the lone Texas hitter with two hits. She hit a single in the sixth through the left side to put two on after Mitchell walked. Pinch-hitter Victoria Hunter tried to check her swing, but poked the ball to Pannell at third. The All-American overshot McKenna Gibson at first and the two-out error allowed a huge Texas insurance run to score.
Texas will await the winner of Texas Tech and Oklahoma to know which team they’ll face in the Women’s College World Series championship series.
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