Texas softball – With one loss apiece in the Women’s College World Series, Texas and Nebraska meet Sunday at 2 p.m. in a do-or-die game for a spot in Monday’s WCWS semifinal against Tennessee. Live updates from Devon Park in Oklahoma City track the matchup between Texas ace Te
The last thing either Texas or Nebraska can afford is another misstep.
Both programs are entering Sunday’s Women’s College World Series game with one loss apiece, and the stakes are immediate: the winner will advance to meet Tennessee in a WCWS semifinal on Monday.
Texas, the defending champion Longhorns with a 48-12 record and the NCAA Tournament’s second overall seed, faces Nebraska, the Big Ten champion Cornhuskers holding a 52-7 mark, at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Texas opened the tournament with a 6-3 loss to Tennessee on Thursday, then bounced back with a 4-0 win over Mississippi State on Friday. Nebraska, meanwhile, lost 6-1 to Alabama on Saturday after winning its opener against Arkansas.
So this is the moment that separates momentum from memory—especially when Texas is trying to solve Nebraska’s ace, and Nebraska is trying to survive Texas’s.
Texas is the designated home team, which means Nebraska bats first. Teagan Kavan fires the opening strike to Jordy Frahm, and the game is underway.
Nebraska leans on Frahm, the 2026 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year and NFCA Player of the Year. Her season numbers are staggering: a 21-5 record with a 1.30 ERA and 12 saves. tying the Big Ten single-season record and ranking sixth in NCAA history. Frahm has also posted eight shutouts, striking out 246 batters while walking only 32.
But her WCWS start has been more tightly wound than usual. In two games and 12 innings at the tournament, Frahm has a 3.50 ERA and a 1.417 WHIP.
On offense, she isn’t just a pitcher. Frahm leads Nebraska with a .404 batting average, 19 home runs, 50 RBIs and 59 runs scored. Her slugging percentage is .798 and her on-base percentage is .498.
Texas counters with its own defining presence: Teagan Kavan, last season’s Most Outstanding Player of the WCWS. She comes in with a 26-6 record, a 2.45 ERA, a 1.11 WHIP and 235 strikeouts with 57 walks in 205⅓ innings.
The early matchup feels like it belongs to their credentials.
Jordy Frahm is perfect through two innings, recording three strikeouts and using just 21 total pitches.
Texas, for its part, has moments of contact but struggles to cash in. Texas went 0-for-9 through its order for the first time this season, and the Longhorns don’t look much closer to breaking Nebraska’s grip against Frahm.
In the top of the first, Frahm works Texas’s order down quickly. Texas’s top of the order goes in order again, and the Longhorns are still searching for their first base runner.
Hannah Coor, a former Sooner, does deliver Texas’s second hit of the game when she doubles to the wall. Even that doesn’t turn into a clean advance.
Coor scores on a grounder by Jesse Farrell that deflects off Teagan Kavan’s glove, but replay confirms that Leighann Goode at second base gets the out at first on the play. It was close to another Nebraska run, and the game’s margins stay razor-thin.
Jaycie Nichols nearly puts the Longhorns ahead with the first hit of the game, but Nebraska’s defense is sharp. Ava Kuszak at shortstop makes a play to get Nichols at first.
Next inning, Texas again tries to make something out of a chance. Jordy Frahm gets the advantage with another groundout to third for the third out.
Frahm’s solo homer in the first remains the game’s only hit so far.
Even with Nebraska leading early, Texas stays disciplined behind Kavan.
After the leadoff homer in the first, Kavan retires six straight batters. There’s a stubbornness to it—Texas’s pitcher doesn’t let the first inning’s damage become an open flood.
Jordy Frahm, meanwhile, sends down the top of the Texas order again in just nine pitches. Vivi Martinez, who struck out only seven times all season entering the WCWS, has now been retired after striking out in each of the past two games.
And then Frahm’s best statement lands again: she blasts a leadoff homer into the centerfield stands. It’s her first dinger since May 3 and her 20th of the season, giving Nebraska the early lead against Texas ace Teagan Kavan.
On defense and infield plays, Nebraska’s positioning keeps tightening. Leighann Goode at second base and Jaycie Nichols at third provide good glove work, helping Kavan move through innings.
There are moments where Texas’s hitters have the right swings, but the game keeps slipping away just before it turns.
Kavan gets Jordy Frahm to ground out to short for the third out in one stretch, while the Longhorns’ order repeatedly runs into the same wall.
As the live updates roll on, the biggest storyline is also the simplest: two elite pitchers setting the tempo, with each at-bat carrying the weight of a tournament that doesn’t offer second chances.
Devon Park in Oklahoma City hosts the showdown, with the TV and radio coverage listed as ABC and texaslonghorns.com.
Reach Texas beat reporter Thomas Jones via email at tjones@statesman.com.
Texas softball Nebraska softball Women’s College World Series Teagan Kavan Jordy Frahm Devon Park Oklahoma City live updates