Victoria Hunter hit a two-out, two-run go-ahead home run in the sixth inning to lift No. 3 Texas to a 4-3 victory over No. 19 Arizona State Saturday night at McCombs Field, forcing a decisive Game 3 in the NCAA Austin Super Regional.
The blast provided the margin in a tight, late game and kept Texas Longhorns Softball alive in the postseason. Citlaly Gutierrez earned the win, improving to 9-3 after throwing 5.0 innings of relief and allowing one run on three hits with six strikeouts. The victory moved Texas to 46-11 overall and 7-1 in the postseason, and it snapped Arizona State's season-long 10-game win streak as Texas extended its hot run to eight wins in nine outings.
Saturday's result magnified the stakes for both programs: the winner on Sunday advances to the Women's College World Series. Texas and Arizona State will meet at 3:30 p.m. CT Sunday, May 24, in a winner-takes-all matchup that will be broadcast on. After a summer of expectations for both clubs, the Super Regional returns to a single game that decides everything.
The weight of the moment fell on Hunter, whose two-run homer came with two outs in the sixth and turned a one-run deficit into a lead Texas would not relinquish. That swing — and Gutierrez's steady relief work — were the difference in a contest decided by one run, and they underline why the Longhorns sit a win shy of the program's next postseason milestone.
Context matters: this was not merely a weekend win. It was Texas stopping Arizona State's run of momentum and extending its own. The Longhorns entered the weekend having won eight of nine games; Arizona State arrived on a season-high 10-game streak that Texas snapped. The Super Regional setting amplifies those runs, because a single extra inning or a late swing can send one program to the Women's College World Series and end the other's season.
There is friction in the result. Texas needed a late, two-out home run to take control, and Arizona State pushed the game to the brink despite the loss. The 4-3 final score exposes how narrow the margin is between advancing and going home. Gutierrez's 5.0 innings of relief and six strikeouts steadied the Longhorns, but the fact that a single swing decided the night makes clear neither club has a comfortable edge heading into Sunday.
What happens next is simple and absolute: the teams play one game for a trip to the Women's College World Series. For Texas, that means leaning on the late-game power Hunter displayed and the relief depth Gutierrez showed on Saturday. For Arizona State, it means rebounding from the snapped winning streak and finding a way to push past a Texas squad that has been one of the most consistent teams late in the season.
Will Texas Longhorns Softball translate Hunter's clutch hitting and Gutierrez's relief into a victory Sunday and secure the trip to the Women's College World Series?
