At the end of it all, three straight strikeouts eliminated the Cougars.
During the Austin Regional on Sunday, Texas pitcher Miranda Elish capped two victories over Houston to advance to the Tuscaloosa Super Regional against Alabama with a 7-0 victory following a 5-2 win.
And it wasn’t just those two victories over the weekend for Elish — she won two other games on Saturday after Friday’s loss to Sam Houston State, helping Texas win four straight games after a Regional-opening defeat for only the second time in school history.
Elish, a former Oregon standout who followed new Texas head coach Mike White to Austin, threw every single pitch over those four games — 429 in total. Over the entire weekend, she had a 0.47 ERA with 33 strikeouts in 30 innings and two solo shutouts.
“She’s got big-time guts to pull that off,” Longhorn legend Cat Osterman told the Austin-American Statesman after watching Sunday’s games at McCombs Field.
The program’s fifth Super Regional appearance and first since 2013 comes in White’s first year with the Longhorns and benefited from a big weekend at the plate by junior third baseman Shannon Rhodes, who hit .467 during the Austin Regional with two home runs and six RBI.
Elish helped out her own cause in the second game on Sunday with a two-run double, while junior left fielder Kaitlyn Washington added a solo home run and another RBI.