Mitchell's pair of homers blast Texas past Florida 3-0 in WCWS opener

AUSTIN (KXAN) — They say a solo home run won’t beat an opponent, but three can.

Texas smacked a trio of long balls, two by first baseman Joley Mitchell, to beat Florida 3-0 in the opening game Thursday of the Women’s College World Series at Devon Park in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Mitchell’s first homer came in the second inning, a towering shot over the left field wall, and her second blast sailed over the center field wall in the sixth. Florida center fielder Kendra Falby made a leaping attempt to rob it, but the ball was barely out of her reach.

Mitchell is the first player in program history to hit multiple home runs in a WCWS game. She didn’t homer in last year’s WCWS during the run to the championship series, so she wanted to make sure she put at least one in the seats this year.

“That was my personal goal for this year,” she said after the game.

Katie Stewart followed Mitchell’s second home run with one of her own, an opposite-field liner into the right field stands. Both players have 16 home runs this year, and there’s a little bit of a friendly competition between them to see who can hit the most.

“It’s nice to have those fun things going on behind the scenes with all the grit that we’re going through,” Mitchell said.

It turned out that Longhorns pitcher Teagan Kavan didn’t necessarily need all three homers. She was dynamite in the circle, throwing a complete-game shutout, allowing two hits with one strikeout and two walks. Kavan typically racks up the strikeouts, averaging 7.3 per start this season, but she let her defense do the bulk of the work. Of the game’s 21 outs, 12 came via ground balls and seven were fly outs. Third baseman Mia Scott had seven assists, and the Longhorns turned a double play to get out of the sixth inning.

“For me, it was huge to trust down in the zone for me to get those ground ball outs,” Kavan said. “It got me out of some situations that could have been bigger, and just my defense kept me locked in the whole game.”

Texas out-hit the Gators 7-2, with four hits coming from the lead-off batter of an inning. While going 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and leaving eight runners on base isn’t ideal, they didn’t need them with the way Kavan shut down the Gators’ lineup.

Longhorns head coach Mike White said Kavan has grown as a pitcher not just over the years, but during this season, as well.

“I think just the ability to mix the pitches up now. Last year, she was more one-dimensional, like a lot of more rise balls,” he said. “Now that the hitters know, she can go with one of three pitches. And she was pretty much in control of it today.”

Texas (52-11) will have Friday off at the WCWS, playing next at 2 p.m. Saturday against either Tennessee or Oklahoma. Florida (48-16) drops into the loser’s bracket and will play at 6 p.m. Friday.

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