Texas Longhorns Softball Season Ends with Super Regional Loss to Tennessee

The Texas Longhorns softball program lost their chance at a 2023 national title with a scoreless defeat in the Knoxville Super Regional.

A heartbreaking loss can be absorbed in two different ways, a team can either dwell on what could have been done differently and let it consume them, or it can be used as fuel for the next year's season. Luckily for the Texas Longhorn softball program, head coach Mike White sees the loss as an opportunity to build off of. 

"To my team, it’s always tough to finish the year out, especially when we let ourselves down a little bit there with five errors and nine runs allowed," White said. "That’s just a tough way to finish it, especially after how well Citlaly (Gutierrez) threw for us." 

"You just aren’t going to win too many games with only two hits. We have a lot of work to do, but I feel confident and proud of our team. We have a really good group of young women, and we have a lot to build on and this season was just a start for us.”

The Longhorns stayed in close range of Tennessee until two runs were scored by the Volunteers in the sixth inning. A chaotic and devastating seventh inning for the Longhorns followed with six additional runs for Tennessee.

With a 9-0 defeat, the Longhorns left the field scoreless. 

A huge topic of conversation this softball season has been the talented freshman. Five Longhorn student-athletes were honored with the selection to the All-Big 12 Freshman Team this 2023 season, so their college softball careers are far from over, which is good news for the program.

Although the outcome left Texas empty-handed, the Longhorns are proud of their 45-15 season record and will use this loss as fuel for the coming season.

“We have to use this weekend as motivation for next season and just keep on building on what we have," freshman and right-handed pitcher Citlaly Gutierrez said. "We have a lot of young talent, so I think over the coming years, we are going to have something special.”

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You can follow Tori Garcia on Twitter @ToriCGarcia

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