UW Softball Weekly Round-Up: Texas Four-Step

This season, we are looking to enhance our coverage of UW Softball. We have always covered the NCAA Tournament and given updates through the season, either through occasional game recaps or updates in Dots. This year, we are launching a weekly Softball recap post to make it easier for casual fans to keep up with the team and give a forum for die-hards to go deeper in the comments. My plan is to post a recap of the weekend’s action each Tuesday with a preview of the next week’s games.

The Dawgs enter the 2026 season in a more comfortable position than where they entered 2025. The huskies dealt with crushing roster turnover and more transfers than they had ever seen in Coach Heather Tarr’s tenure. Nonetheless, the Huskies made it to the NCAA Regionals to maintain Tarr’s streak of making the postseason every year of her UW coaching career. The Dawgs finished the year 35-19 and 12-9 in the Big 10. It wasn’t a bad season, especially after losing so many players after ‘24. It also was not up to the lofty standards of UW Softball, which made three consecutive WCWS as recently as 2017-19.

Coming into this season, the Dawgs have more stability at the top of the roster. The top two pitchers from last season’s team, Sophia Ramuno and Morgan Reimer, are both back with more experience. Offensively, the Huskies bring back their top three HR hitters, 1B Alexis DeBoer, C Jadyn Glab, and 3B Giselle Alvarez. Ava Carroll and Sophi Mazzola will are back as table-setters and good defensive outfielders. The Huskies also welcome nine first-year players an one transfer, former Arizona pitcher Ryan Maddox. Putting that all together, the Huskies enter the season ranked #25 in the country and hoping to rise up the ranks in the Big 10.

The Huskies opened the 2023 season in San Antonio as part of the UTSA Invitational. The field also included #9 Nebraska and #1 Texas. The Dawgs faced the Huskers in the opener and suffered an 8-5 loss. Rylee Rehbein started for UW and got in trouble with walks in the second inning. Nebraska hung four on the board in the frame. UW chipped away and took the lead at 5-4 in the 5th on DeBoer’s second homer of the game. Unfortunately, more walks and defensive miscues in the bottom of the 5th game Nebraska four more runs, and the held on for an 8-5 win.

Washington had a chance to bounce back quickly against the hosting Road Runners. UW overpowered UTSA from the start. The Dawgs scored six runs in the top of the first without an extra base hit. DeBoer finished the game 3-3 with another HR and Ally Hetzel hit a pinch-hit three-run bomb as the Dawgs blew up the Road Runners with Acme Exploding Bats. Ramuno pitched four scoreless, yielding a single baserunner, and Maddox made her UW debut closing out the 17-0 trouncing in five innings.

On Saturday, the Huskies faced the toughest test a team can face, going up against the defending champions and #1 ranked Longhorns. The game was a tense, back-and-forth battle. Texas scored two in the first on a homer off of Reimer. Washington immediately tied it up on the second by scratching out two runs on two singles, a HBP, passed ball, and fielder’s choice. The teams traded zeroes until Texas Hannah Wells hit a three-run homer for Texas. UW fought back behind a Giselle Alvarez HR and another passed ball to take the lead 6-5. Unfortunately, Texas teed off of Maddox in the bottom of the 6th for six runs, punctuated by UT’s third home run of the game. The Dawgs pushed them into the final frames, but Texas tallied the win, 11-6.

The highlight of the weekend came in Sunday’s first game against Nebraska. Ramuno and Reimer combined to give up only two runs to the #9 Huskers, striking out nine without walking a batter. The run prevention allowed Ava Carroll to take over at bat. She finished 3/4 with two runs and an RBI. Her second run was the game winner, scored on a walk-off single by Jadyn Glab in the bottom of the 7th.

Later on Sunday, UW played a rematch with Texas. This time, UT starter Teagan Kavan shut out the Huskies with a complete game shutout. The Huskies did a reasonably good job of limiting the damage done by the potent Longhorn bats, but two runs in the 2nd and three more on the third, including another Katie Stewart homer, were enough for a comfortable UT win.

The Huskies come out of the weekend feeling pretty good about their 2-3 record. The absolutely dominated their lower-ranked competition and belonged on the same diamond in all four games against top-10 opponents. Getting the win over Nebraska on Sunday was a good confidence boost log at least one win against a top team. The Huskies will go back on the road to Northern California this weekend. They will play three against Fresno State, then a single game against each of San Jose State and Santa Clara (two away games in different stadiums on the same day).