Reese Atwood is talking to herself in the batter’s box, and reese atwood is also praying. Texas’ senior catcher said the routine helps her stay present during the Women’s College World Series, where every at-bat has drawn extra attention.
“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” she said she often repeats before hitting. Atwood said her approach is not about softball itself: “my mental approach when I’m going through that is more of taking my mind off the game and trying to be present in those moments.”
Texas and the broadcast lens
Broadcasts showed Atwood moving her lips continuously during at-bats early in the season, turning a private routine into a visible part of Texas’ championship run. That attention followed a year in which Texas won its first national championship, then came back one win away from a second straight title in the current Women’s College World Series.
Atwood said the point is to trust the work already done. “I like to think of something that has zero relation, so I can just go up there and trust all the hard work I put in fully,” she said. That is a sharper edge than simple superstition: she is not trying to control the at-bat so much as clear it out of her head.
Faith, not the scoreboard
“My faith is huge,” Atwood said, and she tied that directly to how she handles pressure moments. “I’m not one to believe that God wants me to hit a home run in those moments,” she said. “I like to think that in those moments, God wants me to be present and use this platform to spread my faith to others, and just showing the strength of being an athlete who is still involved in faith and (being) just a strong woman in general.”
That mindset also gives her a built-in support system. Atwood said Teagan Kavan is her best friend and one of the people she goes to in pressure moments, while roommates Vivi Martinez and Citlaly Gutierrez also tell her to stay present, trust her preparation and not worry about stats.
Game 1 against NiJaree Canady
Atwood’s routine sits beside a more concrete baseball note from last year’s run: she was hitless in the Women’s College World Series until Game 1 of the championship series. Then she broke through with a single through the left side of the infield against NiJaree Canady, and Texas won 2-1 before finishing off the national title.
That is the useful read on Atwood now. The visible lip movement is not a distraction from Texas’ chase; it is part of how a senior catcher with a first national championship already on her résumé keeps the next at-bat from becoming bigger than the process that got her there.
