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Texas softball begins its postseason versus Wagner in the Austin regional

by: Josh Florey05/15/26

The Texas Longhorns, reigning national champions and current SEC Tournament champions, were awarded the No. 2 overall seed and will host the Austin regional as part of the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Texas’ first game is against 4-seed Wagner today at 3 p.m. following a 12:30 p.m. matchup between 2-seed Wisconsin and 3-seed Baylor. It can be streamed on the ESPN App.

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The Badgers come in with a 32-19 overall record and a 14-10 mark in Big Ten play. They have struggled against good teams such as Nebraska, UCLA, and Arizona State, but have a win over Oregon in the Big Ten tournament. 

Hillary Bloomberg has been the best hitter for Wisconsin, boasting a .361 AVG and 15 HR on the season. Shelby Jacobson is the main pitcher the Badgers will bring out, with 146.0 IP, nearly 60 more than Berritt Herr, who is second. Jacobson has a 4.32 ERA and holds opponents to a .250 AVG. 

Baylor is the three seed and will face Wisconsin in the first game. The Bears are 28-26 overall and 10-14 in Big 12 play. They hold a series win against UCF, and took a game off of Texas Tech, but have lost twice to Texas, and got swept by Arizona and Oklahoma State. 

Amber Toven bats .351 with an OBP of .408. She has launched 5 HR, which is third on the team. Brooklyn Carter and Piper Faith are the only two other players who bat over .300, with .323 and .306 AVGs, respectively. Cambree Creager and Peyton Tanner share most of the pitching for Baylor, with over 110 IP each. Creager has the better ERA, at 4.14, while Tanner’s is only slightly worse at 4.33. 

Texas’ first game will be against Wagner. The Seahawks are 22-26 on the season with a 14-10 conference record. They earned their bid with a NEC championship, knocking off CCSU twice and LIU once. Wagner doesn’t have many impressive wins outside of those three games and an early season victory over Florida A&M. They lost to UCF, the best team they’ve played, 9-1 in five innings. 

The Seahawks are not a power team by any means, but get on base a good amount. Sydnie Trujillo bats .400, while Geanice Morales bats .339 with an OBP of .520. Morales’ on-base percentage is helped by the fact that she has been hit by 16 pitches this season. Samantha Lotus and Karson Zavala are the main two pitchers for Wagner, with ERAs of 3.18 and 3.37 respectively. 

The Longhorns are easily the favorite to make it out of the regional, coming off their SEC tournament run, and a great regular season. 

If the Longhorns can win the regional, there is a good chance they would face Texas A&M, who thankfully doesn’t have Emiley Kennedy anymore. Still, the Aggies are a very good team. Texas won the regular season series against the Aggies but dropped the last game. These teams faced off in a very exciting super regional two years ago, with huge moments in all three games. A rivalry series is always difficult, especially in the postseason. In the College Station regional, Texas A&M has to get through Big 12 tournament champ Arizona State, UConn, and McNeese State. 

The Horns are led by star pitcher Teagan Kavan, who had an elite postseason run last year, leading Texas to the national title. The Texas offense has played much better since Mike White mixed up the batting order, spreading out some of Texas’ best bats. SEC Player of the Year Katie Stewart and Reese Atwood are now batting further apart, making the lineup more dangerous throughout and adding more consistency to the offense. 

The Longhorns’ path to back-to-back titles is one of the more difficult ones, but is still very possible. This team has shown they can beat anyone in the nation, but need to continue to play like they have lately, both on offense and defense. 

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