Texas Fights to See Another Day at WCWS, Eliminates Mississippi State

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Texas did what Texas does best on Friday night at the Women’s College World Series: fight.

With their back against the wall facing elimination, the Longhorns lived to see another day with a 4-0 win over Mississippi State.

The Bulldogs saw their magical season come to a tragic end, losing two straight games in Oklahoma City without scoring a run.

“Congratulations to Mississippi State on their season,” said Texas head coach Mike White after the game. “Obviously, they’re all warriors, got a great pitching staff, hitters, never gave in. Coaching staff has done a great job there with their program. I wish them luck going forward.

“It’s kind of win or go home at this point of the season. Fortunately, we’re able to stay for another couple of days, get to fight again. Hopefully, we can put on another good performance like we did today.”

For Texas, the offense came in spurts with two runs in the second, one in the fifth, and one more in the seventh. It was Kaiah Altmeyer’s first home run of the season that gave the Longhorns a lead and stood to be the game-winning runs.

“It’s just great to see her get this moment,” said White of Altmeyer’s home run. “It’s just reward for her keeping her head up and being a real teammate. Like the ladies said, she’s got their backs, using her experience in other places, being ready to contribute to the team whenever she can. It’s just a great story.”

Altmeyer, a senior outfielder, transferred to Texas after spending three seasons at Arizona. She went hitless in the SEC Tournament and Austin Regional but found her swing against Arizona State in the Super Regional when she was 2-for-5 in two games.

“She came in and had a lot of expectations, coming from a successful program, being a successful player on Arizona,” added White. “The transition is always difficult. You try to explain that to them.

“She started off really, really well. Hit as high as three in the order. Then went through a little bit of a struggle. She never pouted, never got down, never did the pity party or anything like that. She stayed, worked hard.”

Kayden Henry also homered for Texas and was the only Longhorn to have multiple hits.

In the circle, it was all Teagan Kavan.

The junior recorded her fourth complete-game shutout at the WCWS, tying Cat Osterman’s program record. She allowed just four hits and struck out two, which was very different from her outing against Tennessee on Thursday.

“I think I was efficient, missed more barrels,” Kavan said postgame. “That was helpful. My defense stole a lot of what could have been a lot of hits. I credit them on that. They were huge for me and took a lot of momentum they could have gotten.”

Three of MSU’s four hits belonged to Xiane Romero. Kinley Keller had the other.

Up next for Texas is a day off before playing the loser of Nebraska and Alabama on Sunday at 2 p.m. CT on ABC.

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