Teagan Kavan threw her first career no-hitter as No. 1 Texas softball opened its weather-delayed series at Missouri with an 8-0 win Saturday in frigid conditions in a game shortened to five innings by the run rule.
Kavan (16-2), a sophomore who has emerged as the workhorse for the Texas staff, tossed 77 pitches to 17 Missouri batters. She forced two flyouts to Ashton Maloney in right field and two groundouts — one to Mia Scott at third base and one to herself in the pitching circle. She fanned the the other 11 batters and did not allow a walk or a hit batter.
The only two Missouri baserunners came via fielding errors by second baseman Kaydee Bennett and third baseman Mia Scott.
Kavan's effort marked the 57th no-hitter in program history and the first since Mac Morgan no-hit Siena over seven innings May 17, 2024.
"Obviously, Teagan was just in control," Texas coach Mike White said. "You could have all the excuses with the temperatures or all the delays and everything else, but she was just down to business and able to shut Missouri down after we scored four runs in the first inning, which was huge because we were able to ride that momentum and keep it on our side.”
Oh, about those four quick runs for Texas (35-3, 8-2 SEC). Three came after Joley Mitchell hammered a home run in the first inning. Reese Atwood added a solo home run two innings later, before Atwood, Katie Stewart and Bennett all had run-scoring singles in the top of the fifth to extend the Longhorns’ lead into run-rule territory.
By scoring on Atwood’s fifth-inning single to left field, Scott scored her 223rd career run while passing Janae Jefferson for the top spot on the program’s career runs scored list.
"The four runs in the first inning kind of took some weight off my shoulders, so I was just letting it roll and throwing what was working," Kavan said. "I was hitting my locations and just trying to take it one pitch at a time.”
Because inclement weather delayed the start of the series, Texas will close out the weekend with a Sunday doubleheader against the Tigers. The first game starts at noon, and the second game will start approximately 30 minutes after the end of the noon game.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman:
