AUSTIN, Texas – The University of Texas' offense picked up right where it left off against Texas Tech on Sunday as the Longhorns knocked off the Red Raiders, 13-4, in five innings during the quarterfinal round of the 2024 Phillips 66 Big 12 Softball Championship. 

Despite Texas Tech (29-21) taking an early 1-0 lead after the top of the first, it took Texas (46-6) just five batters into the bottom half of the frame to take the lead. After Ashton Maloney, Viviana Martinez and Reese Atwood all successfully reached base to load the bases with only one out, Katie Stewart, in her first collegiate at bat at OGE Field at Devon Park — formally known as the USA Softball Hall of Fame Complex — sent the sixth pitch of her plate appearance to the right-center field gap to score Maloney and Martinez to give the Longhorns a 2-1 lead. 

A lead UT never relinquished throughout the 1-hour, 46-minute contest. 

Minutes after Joley Mitchell scored Atwood with a one-out single in the bottom of the first, the Texas lead ballooned from 3-1 to 8-1 following a five-run, three-hit bottom of the second that was highlighted by home runs off the bat of Stewart, Mitchell and Mia Scott. 

Even after the Red Raiders cut their deficit to four following a three-run third, the Longhorns answered right back with a two-out, three-run home run by Martinez. The margin of victory was extended from seven to nine in the bottom of the fourth after Katie Cimusz scored Stewart on a sacrifice fly and Mitchell scoring from third on a wild pitch. 

FROM HEAD COACH MIKE WHITE

"Obviously, playing Texas Tech for a fourth time in a week, you always kind of worry about those kinds of setups and how things are going to go and being down one run straight away, but we were able to bend but not break and came right back out and score. And we needed that then we kept the momentum. You have to credit (Texas Tech) for everything, because they were down but never stopped fighting just like they did yesterday. But we were able to push runs across, so I was really happy with the way the ladies played.

FROM FRESHMAN INFIELDER KATIE STEWART

"There was that span where I really wasn't feeling myself, so being able to do what I am doing right now feels really good. As we say all the time, though, we just have to worry about ourselves and not really worrying about what's outside, so to handle our business — the way we did — was really good."

GAME NOTES

• The 13 runs scored against the Red Raiders on Thursday night, the Texas offense set a program record for the most runs scored in a single game during the Big 12 Conference Championship, surpassing the previous mark (10) set on May 9, 2009, when the Longhorns scored 10 runs in a 10-5 win over Nebraska. 
• With her four RBI on the evening, freshman Katie Stewart set a Texas single-game record for the most RBI (4) in a Big 12 Conference Championship, surpassing teammate Katie Cimusz and six additional Longhorn softball student-athletes who all drove in three runs each. 
  • Cimusz was the last Longhorn to drive in three runs when the junior accomplished the feat against Texas Tech on May 12, 2022. 
• Thursday's five-inning victory marked the sixth consecutive run-rule win for the Texas Longhorns, marking the longest such streak since beginning the 2020 campaign with six. 
• As a result of the nine-run victory on Thursday, Texas' current winning streak was extended to 17 consecutive games, tying the fourth-longest streak in program history. 
  • The 1998 squad won 17 straight from March 5, 1998 to March 22, 1998. 
• With Mac Morgan's strikeout of Demi Elder to end the top of the first inning, the junior right-hander extended Texas' straight of consecutive games with at least one strikeout of an opposing batter to 74 in a row. 

UP NEXT

• With the win, Texas advances to the semifinals of the 2024 Phillips 66 Big 12 Softball Championship and will play the winner of fourth-seeded Baylor and fifth-seeded UCF at 7:30 p.m. CT on Friday, May 10. 

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