# 3 Takeaways: Texas Longhorns Edges Tennessee Lady Volunteers 5-2 **Published:** 2026-06-01 — **By:** Stacy Stanfield **Category:** games — **Type:** game-takeaways **Source:** https://secscouts.com/news/texas-longhorns-edge-tennessee-lady-vols-5-2-sec-takeaways **Teams:** [Tennessee](https://secscouts.com/tennessee/), [Texas](https://secscouts.com/texas/) **Players:** [Citlaly - P Gutierrez](https://secscouts.com/players/?id=13408), [Teagan - P Kavan](https://secscouts.com/players/?id=13472), [Sage - P Mardjetko](https://secscouts.com/players/?id=13484), [Erin - P Nuwer](https://secscouts.com/players/?id=13419), [Kaiah Altmeyer](https://secscouts.com/players/kaiah-altmeyer), [Reese Atwood](https://secscouts.com/players/reese-atwood), [Emma Clarke](https://secscouts.com/players/emma-clarke), [Ella Dodge](https://secscouts.com/players/ella-dodge), [Sophia Knight](https://secscouts.com/players/sophia-knight), [Gabby Leach](https://secscouts.com/players/gabby-leach), [Viviana Martinez](https://secscouts.com/players/viviana-martinez), [Elsa Morrison](https://secscouts.com/players/elsa-morrison), [Katie Stewart](https://secscouts.com/players/katie-stewart), [Hannah Wells](https://secscouts.com/players/?id=13407) --- ## Texas Holds Off Tennessee 5-2 in Heavyweight SEC Clash The Texas Longhorns built their lead the way they have all season — over the fence — knocking off the Tennessee Lady Volunteers 5-2 at OGE Energy Field at Devon Park in a pivotal SEC matchup. Texas broke a 1-1 tie with a four-run surge across the fifth and seventh innings, getting home runs from Katie Stewart and Reese Atwood and a clutch two-run single from Hannah Wells. The win keeps the Longhorns (22-9 SEC) firmly in second place in the conference and tightens the margin behind league-leading Alabama. ### TAKEAWAY 1 — Texas's power core overwhelmed Tennessee The Longhorns' lineup did what it does best, and Tennessee had no answer for it. Reese Atwood opened the scoring in the fourth with a solo shot to center — her 21st home run of the season — and Katie Stewart answered Gabby Leach's game-tying triple by launching her own homer to left in the fifth. Stewart finished 3-for-4 with a run, an RBI, and that decisive blast, extending one of the most dominant seasons in the conference: a .444 average, a .570 on-base percentage, a 1.026 slugging mark, and a team-best 34 home runs. The damage didn't stop at the long ball. Hannah Wells delivered the swing that flipped the game open, lacing a two-run single to deep center in the fifth that scored Viviana Martinez and Atwood and pushed the lead to 4-1. Wells finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and has been scorching of late, going 6-for-14 (.429) over her last five games. Martinez (3-for-4) and Kaiah Altmeyer (3-for-4) kept the line moving, giving Texas the kind of top-to-bottom production that makes its offense so difficult to contain. ### TAKEAWAY 2 — Tennessee's bats went quiet when it mattered For a Tennessee team that had just taken a 6-3 win over Texas earlier in this stretch, the offense was conspicuously absent here. The Lady Volunteers managed just two runs and never seriously threatened after Gabby Leach's RBI triple knotted the game at 1-1 in the fourth. Leach (1-for-3) and Emma Clarke — who drove in Tennessee's second run on an infield single in the seventh — accounted for both RBI, but the supporting cast couldn't string together enough to climb back in. The concern for Tennessee is the lack of pressure from its proven producers. Sophia Knight, the team's leading hitter at .412, went 1-for-4. Clarke, who paces the Lady Vols with nine home runs, managed only the late infield single. Against an offense like Texas's, Tennessee needed its top bats to match the Longhorns blow for blow, and a single-run output through six innings simply wasn't enough. Erin Nuwer turned in a steady 4.2 innings (one run), but once Sage Mardjetko surrendered four runs across 2.1 frames, the deficit proved too steep for a stalled lineup to erase. ### TAKEAWAY 3 — The SEC race tightens behind Alabama The result carries real weight at the top of the standings. Texas improves to 22-9 in SEC play, closing within a game of first-place Alabama (23-6) and staying just ahead of Oklahoma (21-7) in a three-team logjam atop the league. With the Longhorns rolling — winners of four of their last five, including a pair of shutouts — they've positioned themselves as a genuine threat to chase down the conference crown down the stretch. For Tennessee, the loss drops the Lady Volunteers to 19-11 in conference play, holding fourth place but losing ground in the race for a higher seed. The good news is that the gap to fifth-place Florida (18-8) remains manageable, and Tennessee's recent body of work — including a 2-1 win over Texas Tech and a 2-1 road win at Georgia — shows a team capable of beating anyone on the right night. But against the SEC's elite, the margin for error is shrinking, and the Lady Vols will need their top bats to wake up to protect their standing as the postseason picture comes into focus. --- *Original article: [3 Takeaways: Texas Longhorns Edges Tennessee Lady Volunteers 5-2](https://secscouts.com/news/texas-longhorns-edge-tennessee-lady-vols-5-2-sec-takeaways) — SEC Scouts*