Martinez has 3 extra base hits, Texas heads to WCWS with 6-5 win over Texas A&M

Published 1:13 am Monday, May 27, 2024

Texas’ Bella Dayton celebrates after a home run against Texas A&M in Game 2 of the NCAA college Division I softball tournament super regional in Austin Saturday. (Meredith Seaver/College Station Eagle via AP)

AUSTIN — Viviana Martinez had three hits and drove in two runs to lead No. 1 seeded Texas into the WCWS with a 6-5 win over 16th-seeded Texas A&M on Sunday night in the Austin Super Regional.

Martinez had an RBI double in the bottom of the third when the Longhorns took a 2-0 lead. She also had a double in the fifth and capped a three-run sixth inning with an RBI triple, which proved to be the difference.



Texas (52-8), hosting a Super Regional for the first time since 2013, is headed to its seventh WCWS.

It didn’t come easily as Julia Cottrill followed a single and a walk in the top of the seventh with a three-run home run for the Aggies (44-15).

Mac Morgan (15-1) allowed four hits and two unearned runs in 5 1/3 innings for the Longhorns and Teagan Kavan went the rest of the way for her fourth save.

Most Popular

Shaylee Ackerman (8-2) went 4 2/3 for the Aggies, giving up six hits and three runs, just one earned.

Both teams had three errors.

Florida 5, Baylor 3

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Mia Williams hit a two-run home run, Keagan Rothrock worked out of a seventh-inning jam to polish off a complete game for her 30th win and fourth-seeded Florida beat unseeded Baylor 5-3 on Sunday in the finale of the best-of-three Gainesville Super Regional, earning the Gators a spot in the Women’s College World Series.

Florida (51-13) won its fifth straight Game 3 in the super regionals, also doing so from 2017-19 and most recently in 2022. The Gators had never made a super regional until Tim Walton took over in 2006. Since then, the Gators have played in 15 of them and made 11 WCWS appearances, winning back-to-back championships in 2014-15.

Florida took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on a sacrifice fly by Jocelyn Erickson and an RBI single by Reagan Walsh.

Williams, who entered play with a .167 batting average, pushed the Bears’ lead to 4-0 in the second with her sixth home run this season. That spelled the end for Bears starter RyLee Crandall (17-9), who retired just four batters. Aliyah Binford moved from third base to the mound to end the threat and finish the game.

Baylor (36-23) answered with a run-scoring single by Sydney Collazos in the top of the fourth and leadoff hitter Emily Hott’s 11th home run of the season — a two-run shot in the fifth to pull within 4-3.

The Gators loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the inning, but Binford allowed only Ariel Kowalewski’s sac fly to keep Baylor within two runs.

No. 9 batter Taylor Strain led off the seventh with an infield hit and Hott drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch from Rothrock. Presleigh Pilon popped up a bunt for the first out. Shaylon Govan lined out to left field for the second and Binford, the clean-up hitter, popped out to first to end the game.

Rothrock (30-7) allowed three runs — two earned — on eight hits and two walks, striking out three.

Binford went the final 4 2/3 innings for the Bears, allowing one run on two hits and six walks with three strikeouts.

Baylor ended Florida’s 12-game win streak on Saturday with a 5-2 victory to force a third game. The Gators won the opener 4-2. Baylor finished with more hits in all three games.

The Bears were playing in their seventh super regional — all since 2005 — and first since 2017 when the Bears advanced to their fourth WCWS. Baylor entered the game with a 6-6 record all time versus Florida, including a 3-2 mark in Gainesville.

Baylor manager Glenn Moore took over the reins in 2001 after leading LSU for two seasons.