With the 2026 Southeastern Conference Softball Championship trophy tucked safely into the Texas Longhorns’ trophy case, the team is looking ahead in its push to bring home a second national championship.

On May 10, the Longhorns were awarded the No. 2 overall seed in the 2026 DI Softball Championship Bracket and declared hosts of the Austin Regional, which begins May 15. Texas will host Wagner College, the University of Wisconsin, and Baylor University.

“Being a No. 2 seed is awesome, [we’re] very excited about that,” head coach Mike White said. “[I’m]proud of the ability for the ladies to close the season out strong with the regular season and then going into the (SEC) championship.”

Despite Texas defeating the University of Alabama in the SEC Championship 7-1, the Tide ultimately nabbed the tournament’s top overall seed by going 49-7 in the regular season, including a 19-5 conference record. The Tide took the regular season series 2-1 in Tuscaloosa, giving them the seeding advantage. According to the NCAA Softball Division I Committee Chair, Natalie Honnen, Texas was in the conversation for a No. 1 seed, but lost out to Alabama’s overall season metrics and the fact that Texas was shut out three times late in the regular season.

With home-turf advantage, the Longhorns will face three teams in a double-elimination round, for their quest to advance to the Super Regionals on their road back to Oklahoma City.

The Wagner Seahawks secured their ticket to the Austin Regional by winning their first Northeast Conference Championship, paving the way for them to compete in their first NCAA Softball Regional game. From Staten Island, the Seahawks’ schedule isn’t the same rigorous SEC schedule that the Longhorns played; however, Wagner is walking into Red & Charline McCombs Field with something to prove.

“We can’t look past anybody,” White said after the regional matchups were announced.

While the Wagner Seahawks have a long flight down to Austin, the Baylor Bears just have a quick drive down Interstate-35 to play Texas for a third time this season.

During a two-game non-conference series in late March, the Longhorns destroyed the Bears, ending both games in run-rule. In those two games, Texas scored 21 total runs, including four home runs. Comparatively, Baylor could only manage to get two of its runners around the bases on the first day in Austin. The next day, Baylor suffered a shutout at their home field, Getterman Stadium.

Despite the losses, Baylor pushed forward and found the momentum to avoid a sweep by beating the 2025 Women’s College World Series runner-up, Texas Tech, 8-7 in game two of that series. The Bears, 28-26, are hoping to harness that kind of energy and defeat 32-19 Wisconsin in the first game of the Austin Regional.

Wisconsin, which appeared in the semi-finals of the Big Ten Tournament, will make a trip down to Austin for the first time since 2023. If Wisconsin makes it past Baylor, there will be a major showdown between the Austin Regional’s top two teams.

Texas has the momentum.

“We peaked at the right time, we had everything happening, everyone was hitting throughout the lineup,” White said. “We had consistent performances from (junior infielder Viviana) Martinez, (senior infielder) Leighann Goode and (junior outfielder) Kayden Henry seems to be getting on all the time.”

In their three SEC tournament games, the Longhorns scored 18 runs on 28 hits. Additionally, four balls found their way out of the park and into the grass field behind the outfield wall.

While Texas’ bats finally got going again, it was junior right-handed pitcher Teagan Kavan’s lights-out performance that propelled the Longhorns to their championship.

Kavan started all three games, playing for 18.2 of the 21 inning and only allowing 11 hits. When the pressure was on in the championship game, Kavan delivered, pitching 12 strikeouts to shut down Alabama’s offense.

The tournament was a test for Kavan’s arm to see if she could withstand starting in the circle three days in a row as the Longhorns enter the NCAA tournament.

We] always ask the question ‘how are you feeling?’ White said. “She did say on the post-game press conference of the SEC that she was feeling tired, but I think adrenaline must’ve kicked in, because getting 12 strikeouts against Alabama, she couldn’t have been too tired. … It does give me a lot of confidence that we’ll be able to throw her multiple innings.”

If Texas can get the job done in the Austin Regional, they will host the Super Regional at Red & Charline McCombs Field against the victor of the College Station Regional.

The first game of the Austin regional will be on May 15 at 12:30 p.m. CT with Wisconsin taking on Baylor. The Longhorns’ game against Wagner will follow at 3 p.m. CT.