Texas softball's Viviana Martinez making most of WCWS moment after last year's ACL injury
Viviana Martinez joined the player mosh pit in the middle of the Devon Park infield, and when it morphed into a dogpile, she went down with the rest of her Texas teammates.
Her surgically-repaired and still-healing ACL?
Martinez wasn’t about to let that hold her back.
But that knee injury did keep the Longhorns’ starting shortstop out of the lineup last year. Missed the entire season. Watched every game from the dugout.
And darned if that wasn’t the season Texas won the program’s first-ever national championship.
Even though Martinez adopted the Buddhist concept of mudita, or finding joy in the happiness of others, and celebrated every single moment at the Women’s College World Series — “She was our biggest cheerleader,” Texas slugger Katie Stewart said — Martinez is a player.
Players wanna play.
As the best-of-three championship series begins Wednesday at the WCWS, many of the storylines revolve around the rematch of last season’s final series between Texas and Texas Tech. Longhorns vs. Red Raiders. Teagan Kavan vs. NiJaree Canady.
Been here, done that.
That, however, couldn’t be further from the truth for Martinez.
“I’m just taking it all in, game by game,” she said Tuesday during the pre-champ series press conferences. “I’m so excited to be out there on the field this time with all the girls.”
Martinez started her very first game at Texas, and over her first two seasons in Austin, she started 122 games and played in every game but one.
Teagan Kavan was a freshman in Martinez’s sophomore season, and the Texas ace got accustomed to having her shortstop behind her. Yes, Martinez made a ton of plays, but she was also a steady voice in Kavan’s ear.
“It’s fun to have that constant communication with her on the field,” Kavan said.
That on-field presence was gone last season.
But the voice wasn’t.
Martinez learned about mudita, the Buddhist concept, from one of the many motivational messages sent to the players by Texas coach Mike White. The idea of supporting others’ successes as if they were hers resonated with her. She was going to be in the dugout all season. She was going to have to look at the game differently.
Why not lean into mudita?
“I don’t think there was a time we would gather as a team when she wasn’t saying something to us and feeding us with so much energy and so much heart and passion for the game,” Kavan remembered. “I think it’s really cool that she just chose to take that outlook on it and build the team and make us better.”
Stewart said, “She was there to support us through every little moment, every struggle. Having her own things to deal with going through therapy and all that, even if she didn’t have her best day, she was there for us and was going to keep supporting us.”
So it was when Texas secured that national championship a year ago this week. Martinez not only mosh-pitted and dogpiled but also walked around the postgame celebration with the biggest smile on her face.
That smile has only grown, though, as she’s returned to the field.
And she’s not the only one in burnt orange happy about her return.
As solid as she was at shortstop before the injury, Martinez has committed only seven errors this season and has a .960 fielding percentage. Both are career bests.
At the plate, she is hitting .382 and has been rock steady in the three hole.
On Monday, with Texas needing to beat Tennessee twice to extend the season, Martinez was even better than that. She went 4 of 7 in the two games combined, and that included an RBI single in the second game that drove in the Longhorns’ first run and opened the floodgates for a three-run inning that would be all the run support Kavan would need.
“She deserves it,” Kavan said of Martinez being able to play on the biggest stage. “She worked so hard, and she’s worked so hard to get back into this position and be even better than she was before.”
White said, “It’s been tremendous to watch her have the ability to contribute to the team on the field. She did a lot last year off the field, and now, just having the opportunity to be with her teammates and hopefully experience the joy of winning a national championship.
“Either way, what she’s done this season has been incredible.”
All of the Longhorns hope they get to celebrate another championship on the Devon Park infield this week, but for as much as the mosh pit and the dog pile might look the same, Martinez will see it differently.
Not better. Not worse. But with way more gratitude.
“Just embracing it,” she said of this opportunity. “Being appreciative and grateful for every moment and taking in even the environment, being on the field, the dirt, all of it. Just excited to be out there again.”
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at @jennicarlsonok.bsky.social and twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
Texas vs. Texas Tech
WCWS FINAL GAME 1 FIRST PITCH: 7 p.m. Wednesday at Devon Park in Oklahoma City (ESPN)
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Texas softball’s Viviana Martinez cherishing WCWS final after torn ACL
