No. 8 Longhorns Softball Advances to Austin Regional Championship

After Saturday's defeat over their historic rivals, Texas A&M, the Texas Longhorns softball program advanced to the Austin Regional Championship game.

After shutting out Seton Hall on Friday in the opening game of the Austin Regional, the No. 8/8 Texas Longhorns were eye-to-eye with a new challenge - the opportunity to defeat their historic rivals, Texas A&M, on Saturday.

"As I told the team, this is going to be a taste of what it's going to be like in a couple of years when you move the SEC: competitive games with a lot of tensions and pressure moments," Texas coach Mike White said. 

Freshman right-handed pitcher Citlaly Gutierrez made her college postseason debut on Saturday against the Aggies. She worked at the mound for a total of five innings and threw 82 pitches which struck out four batters and only allowed one run to be scored, which was the only tag at home plate the Aggies made on Saturday. 

Although the Texas versus A&M rivalry seems to be an important historic tradition that riles up the fans on either side of the plate, Gutierrez made sure to treat Saturday's game like any other.

"It was definitely a great feeling being out there for the first time," Gutierrez said. "It was a great environment. The rivalry, yes, is really huge. But, I learned to definitely stay present in the game and stay within ourselves and not make the game bigger than it is. I trusted my defense and they worked right behind me."

As far as Texas' offense, the two runs scored in the third inning off the bat of junior outfielder Bella Dayton were enough to seal a 2-1 win over the Aggies to advance to Austin Regional Championship.

The Longhorns will face Texas A&M once more today at 1 p.m. in the championship round of the NCAA Austin Regional. If the Longhorns fall short, both teams will face off 30 minutes following the first game to determine who will take the Austin Regional championship title. 

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You can follow Tori Garcia on Twitter @ToriCGarcia

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