Around Campus

Texas Softball: Tremendous Season Falls
Just Short of Run to NCAA Championship

UT softball stars Megan Willis (left) and Cat Osterman celebrate at the Women’s College World Series

In addition to being named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, junior catcher Megan Willis turned in a solid season at the plate, batting .281 with four home runs and 25 RBI.

Cat Osterman leaves Texas after establishing a great legacy in the sport of softball. The three-time National Player of the Year is the NCAA all-time strikeout leader, and she averaged 14.4 strikeouts per seven innings, another NCAA record.

All-America sophomore Desiree Williams led the way for Texas at the plate this season and also compiled a .952 fielding average at shortstop.

This year, the Texas softball team, behind the brilliant pitching of senior lefthanded pitching ace Cat Osterman, brought national attention to the sport with their great talent, sportsmanship and interaction with fans. Texas finished the year 55-9, won the Big 12 regular season championship, and advanced to the program’s fourth NCAA Women’s College World Series (WCWS) – the “final eight” in softball.

Osterman herself had a record-setting year and earned USA Softball National Player of the Year honors for the third time as well as All-America honors for the fourth time. The Longhorns were a crowd favorite everywhere they went, setting attendance records at five road stadiums while smashing the school’s own attendance records in the process. Below is a look at the team’s run in the WCWS and some of the honors and accolades that came the Longhorns’ way this year.

Confident and ready, with a 5-0 record in NCAA Championship play after sweeping through Regional and Super Regional action, the Texas softball team came into the 2006 Women’s College World Series with lots of momentum and hoping to cap off a record-setting season by reaching one final goal -- a NCAA title.

Things couldn’t have started off better for UT head coach Connie Clark’s squad in Oklahoma City, the site of the WCWS. In the team’s first game against sixth-seeded Arizona State, the Longhorns banged out six hits, four of which went for extra bases. Senior ace Cat Osterman set the World Series strikeout record for a seven-inning game as she fanned 18 Sun Devil batters in the 2-0 UT victory on June 1.

A showdown against No. 2 seed Arizona was next. Since top-seeded UCLA already had one loss -- an opening setback to No. 8 seed Tennessee -- it seemed that the winner of Arizona and Texas would be a virtual lock for the national championship series.
The game itself, held on June 2, felt like a national championship game in intensity, fan excitement and talent, as Osterman and Arizona’s Alicia Hollowell battled in a true pitcher’s duel. Yet, it was the Wildcats who broke through with two runs this game, and Texas had to take a hard-luck loss despite Osterman’s brilliant outing, as she allowed only one hit – an infield single.

With the brackets switching sides, and UCLA knocking off Alabama, a familiar sight occurred in Oklahoma City. In its last two WCWS showings in 2003 and 2005, it had been UCLA who eliminated Texas from the NCAA championship.

On June 3, in an elimination game, it was again UCLA who could send the Longhorns packing. Unfortunately, the Bruins pulled off the “three-peat” under the lights at the standing-room only ASA Hall of Fame Stadium. For the second time in as many games, the Longhorns played in a game worthy of national championship status.

For Cat Osterman and the other four seniors (Tina Boutelle, Jaclyn Daniels, Amber Hall and Chez Sievers), their brilliant career run was over.
Osterman, the NCAA’s all-time strikeouts leader, fittingly ended her illustrious Texas career with a strikeout. Osterman struck out Danielle Peterson on her last pitch in a Texas uniform in the top of the seventh, and walked off the field to a standing ovation from the capacity crowd.

After the game, everyone recognized the passing of one of the game’s greats. Fans continued to cheer and chant on the Longhorns even after the team had left the field. They waited patiently in long lines and peered over walls and through the fences, just to catch a glimpse of the team while the Longhorns conducted post-game interviews outside the press area. Absolutely no one was ready to let the Longhorns go away.

The Women’s College World Series showed just how hard it is to win a national championship. One defensive miscue, one slip of a pitch, or one bad swing can all result in a team falling short. Going into Oklahoma City, the No. 3 seeded Longhorns were one of the favorites, thanks to their strengths on defense and in the circle, where the squad led the nation for the second straight year in ERA with a miniscule 0.81 team ERA.

Yet, the simple fact is that to win a national championship, you have to beat the best, and the Longhorns lost to the only two teams ranked ahead of them in the national Top 25 polls.

While the end result was disappointing, the 2006 season was far from a loss.
There were plenty of signs that even with the passing of the highly-talented group of seniors, the best days of Texas Softball may still lie ahead. A new bar has been set, and one day it will be reached and even raised.