Texas softball moves into top-5 in 3 of 4 national polls after Oklahoma State sweep
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Fresh off a huge home sweep of Oklahoma State, the Texas Longhorns are now a top-five team in the country according to three national softball polls.
The Longhorns slid into the No. 5 spot in the D1Softball.com, ESPN/USA Softball and NFCA/USA Today Coaches polls while moving up to No. 8 in the Softball America poll.
- Full D1Softball.com poll
- Full ESPN/USA Softball poll
- Full Softball America poll
- Full NFCA/USA Today Coaches poll
The Longhorns rose four spots in the D1Softball.com poll and two in all the other polls. Texas is currently second in the Big 12 Conference with an 11-4 mark behind top-ranked Oklahoma at 12-0. Texas has one Big 12 series left to play May 5-7 against Baylor. In the meantime, they'll have two nonconference games against UTSA on Wednesday and May 3 against Sam Houston State. Both games are at McCombs Field.
Freshman catcher Reese Atwood crushed a 3-run, walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to list to Longhorns past the Cowgirls 3-2 in the second game of the series April 22, and she delivered a game-winning single in the opener April 21 in the eighth inning. Pitcher Mac Morgan also added to her 29.2 scoreless innings streak with 9.2 shutout innings against the Cowgirls. Both were honored as player and pitcher of the week by the Big 12.
In both games, Texas went into the final inning without a hit yet still rallied to grab crucial wins not just in Big 12 play, but for national seeding purposes when the NCAA tournament comes around in mid-May.