The Texas softball team left behind recent Women's College World Series heartbreak and experienced a new emotion Friday: championship euphoria.
The Longhorns beat Texas Tech 10-4 in the winner-take-all third game of the WCWS finals in Oklahoma City to capture the first title in program history.
Texas was spurred by a pair of massive home runs -- one in the first inning that provided the first crack in the armor of one of the nation's best pitchers. Then a grand slam by Mia Scott in the fourth that nearly ended the game early.
Texas had finished runner-up to rival Oklahoma in two of the previous three championship finals and come up empty in seven previous WCWS appearances, all since 1998.
It was nearly a run-rule ending for Texas after it scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth to