Teagan Kavan powers No. 1 seed Texas past Stanford at WCWS

Field Level Media|published: 05/30/2024, 10:07pm EDT

Texas' Teagan Kavan (17) pitches during a Women's College World Series softball game between the Texas Longhorns and the Stanford Cardinal at Devon Park in Oklahoma City, Thursday, May 30, 2024. Texas won 4-0.

Teagan Kavan threw a one-hit shutout and top-seeded Texas defeated Stanford 4-0 in their first game of the Women's College World Series on Thursday in Oklahoma City.

Texas will face the winner between Oklahoma State and Florida on Saturday. Stanford will play the loser of that game in an elimination contest Friday.

Kayden Henry hit a two-RBI single in the sixth inning to double the lead for the Longhorns (53-8), who also scored twice in the third inning.

For Stanford (48-16), Ava Gall reached on an infield single with two outs in the first inning, but the eighth-seeded Cardinal could not find another hit against Kavan (19-2), who struck out eight with four walks. She threw 124 pitches, 75 for strikes.

Henry scored the game's first run in the third inning on Bella Dayton's infield single. Dayton went to second while teammate Ashton Maloney was tagged out at third. The next batter was Mia Scott, who singled home Dayton for a 2-0 lead.

Henry came up with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth, and she sent a single to right off Stanford starter NiJaree Canady (22-6) to plate two runners.

Canady pitched all six innings for the Cardinal and yielded five hits and four walks with five strikeouts.

--Field Level Media