Texas Softball Signs Texas Tech Red Raider Pitcher From Transfer Portal

Texas Longhorns softball has not remained quiet after their national championship victory as they began adding to their 2026 roster, already signing two players from the transfer portal, and on Thursday afternoon, the Longhorns once again made an addition to their 2026 roster via the transfer portal.

This time, head coach Mike White adds to his pitching staff in left-handed pitcher Brenlee Gonzales, as she announced on her X account on Thursday that she has committed to the Longhorns for the 2026 season. White can put Gonzales in his plans for the future as she has three years of eligibility remaining.

The Aledo (TX) product makes her way to Austin from the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Where in her freshman year, the lefty appeared in 12 games, making one start in her collegiate debut, finished the season with a 2.84 ERA in 12.1 innings of work, was a perfect 2-0 on the season, and had 12 strikeouts while allowing just five earned runs.

Texas Softball adds Much-Needed Depth to Next Season's Pitching Rotation with Gonzales

The Longhorns featured one of the strongest bullpens in all of college softball, finishing with a combined ERA of 2.55 and 414 strikeouts as a unit. However, the Longhorns will lose two out of their five arms from last season in Mac Morgan and Sophia Simpson, who have now graduated, leaving Teagan Kavan, Citlaly Gutierrez, and Cambria Salmon as the pitchers who remain from the 2025 season.

Kavan enters her junior year next season, but as a sophomore, Kavan led as the rotation's ace, finishing with an ERA of 2.16, a 28-5 record, 230 strikeouts on her way to becoming the Women's College World Series Most Outstanding Player and a national championship.

While Gutierrez primarily served in a relief role and made sporadic starts across the season, with a 2.56 ERA and 69 strikeouts in her 34 appearances across the season. And Salmon will certainly get more opportunities than she did as a freshman, but she showed promise in her 22 appearances with an ERA of 2.48 and 66 strikeouts.

And the Longhorns have added more depth with a pitcher from the high school ranks in two-way Hannah Wells, who was recently recognized as the Gatorade National Player of the Year, and joins the Longhorns next season. Wells finished with a 22-1 record in the circle with a 0.44 ERA and 258 strikeouts, and hit .602 with 31 home runs and 75 RBI.

The addition of Gonzales adds another promising young arm and adds a different look to the Longhorns' retooled pitching rotation for Mike White and pitching coach Pattie Ruth Taylor to work with.