Keys for Texas, Texas Tech to win the 2025 WCWS

Texas and Texas Tech will open the Women’s College World Series Championship on Wednesday at Devon Park, as each program is two wins away from its first-ever national championship. What will it take to reach the mountaintop? We take an in-depth look.

Women’s College World Series Championship Series Schedule

Game 1 – June 4, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN
Game 2 – June 5, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN
Game 3 (if necessary) – June 6, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN

Texas Projected Starters

Advanced stats powered by 64Analytics

Advanced Stats Key:

(wRC+) Weighted Runs Created Plus takes the Runs Created stat from Bill James and adjusts the number to account for external factors, such as ballpark effects.

(xFIP) Expected Fielding Independent Pitching: A version of FIP that normalizes the home run component based on a league-average home run-to-fly ball rate.

(SIERA) Skill-Interactive Earned Run Average: A statistic that attempts to measure the underlying skill of a pitcher.

Player	BA	OPS	2B	3B	HR	RBI	wRC+
RF Ashton Maloney	0.423	0.948	9	2	0	23	112.06
CF Kayden Henry	0.406	1.012	12	3	4	30	115.34
3B Mia Scott	0.438	1.181	18	2	8	55	123.59
C Reese Atwood	0.398	1.358	12	3	21	86	133.68
1B Joley Mitchell	0.382	1.275	10	1	17	63	127.55
LF Katie Stewart	0.379	1.166	13	0	17	78	122.58
SS Leighann Goode	0.295	0.866	8	2	9	39	105.91
DP Katie Cimusz	0.24	0.774	4	2	4	18	101.32
2B Kaydee Bennett	0.252	0.68	5	1	2	15	96.74
Victoria Hunter	0.246	0.944	2	0	5	15	110.6
Vanessa Quiroga	0.246	0.747	1	0	4	15	98.94
Adayah Wallace	0.125	0.25	0	0	0	2	69

Player	W	L	SV	IP	ERA	SIERA	xFIP
Teagan Kavan	26	5	4	192.1	2.33	2.81	2.79
Mac Morgan	11	4	1	73.2	3.23	5.06	3.58
Citlaly Gutierrez	10	1	3	81.2	2.57	4.17	3.99

3 Keys for Texas to win the WCWS

1. Teagan Kavan has to go pitch-for-pitch with NiJaree Canady

Kavan has been phenomenal at the Women’s College World Series with her wins over Florida and Oklahoma, as well as a save against Tennessee. She has thrown 17 innings without allowing an earned run. Canady is good enough to win with only one run, similar to their battle back in Austin, Kavan will need her best.

“She’s proven that she’s got the mental toughness,” Texas head coach Mike White said. “She came in in some super tough — Super Regional, super tough situations, especially against Clemson on second and third and none out and be able to work out of that with some great pitching, determination.

“Especially after some struggles she went through, but sometimes that can make you tougher, and it’s made her tougher. Just being in this situation now, she’s pitching at her best. I think she’s looking forward to leading this team to hopefully a Championship Series.”

2. Reese Atwood needs to find herself

The Texas All-American catcher is hitless through three games at the Women’s College World Series. Atwood is one of the few athletes who have homered against Canady, and that’s all the Longhorns might need to win a pitcher’s duel. Regardless, Atwood can turn it on at any moment, but Texas needs their star to win their first National Championship. She’ll also be an important piece behind the plate against a very aggressive Texas Tech team.

“I think that speaks for itself as far as the number of people she’s thrown out and people just not stealing on her,” White said. “She’s ready to gun them down. She loves that opportunity to do that. She continues to work on her receiving game to try and — she gets frustrated when we don’t get calls we think we should get, and she’s continued to try to work on doing that as well.”

3. The bottom of the order has to continue to produce

When Texas struggled toward the end of the regular season, the Longhorns didn’t get much production from Leighann Goode and Kaydee Bennett at the bottom of the lineup. The middle infield duo has been a lot better in the postseason. Goode has a hit in every game this postseason except one. The ability to turn the lineup over is huge for the Longhorns.

“We love each other a lot, and I think just naturally we’re all strong competitors,” Texas infielder Joley Mitchell. “We were talking about it earlier that I think we enjoy going out there and competing and dominating other people together. It’s kind of like our little bonding thing. Outside of this, we love each other too.

“Yeah, I do think that (Oklahoma series) was kind of like the moment where we said, hey, if we’re going to win this thing, we have to turn it around. Everybody this postseason has played a huge part. You look back, and Leighann had a great postseason. (Bennett) got us the run in against Clemson. Everybody is contributing the best that they can. I think we’ve had a really great attitude going into this week as well.”

Texas Tech Projected Starters

Advanced stats powered by 64Analytics

Advanced Stats Key:

(wRC+) Weighted Runs Created Plus takes the Runs Created stat from Bill James and adjusts the number to account for external factors, such as ballpark effects.

(xFIP) Expected Fielding Independent Pitching: A version of FIP that normalizes the home run component based on a league-average home run-to-fly ball rate.

(SIERA) Skill-Interactive Earned Run Average: A statistic that attempts to measure the underlying skill of a pitcher.

Player	BA	OPS	2B	3B	HR	RBI	wRC+
CF Mihyia Davis	0.376	0.936	10	6	5	26	110.7
SS Hailey Toney	0.323	0.892	14	0	7	33	107.7
1B Lauren Allred	0.368	1.071	10	3	9	54	118.18
P NiJaree Canady	0.297	1.121	6	0	11	34	120.01
2B Alexa Langeliers	0.317	0.929	6	1	8	40	110.82
RF Alana Johnson	0.318	0.985	10	1	9	45	113.16
LF Demi Elder	0.341	1.029	5	1	4	18	115.74
C Victoria Valdez	0.236	0.692	10	0	2	28	98.01
3B Bailey Lindemuth	0.316	0.833	8	0	5	31	104.82
Raegan Jennings	0.393	0.867	4	0	0	19	107.65
Logan Halleman	0.36	0.838	1	1	0	0	106
Anya German	0.294	0.68	3	0	0	14	95.82

Player	W	L	SV	IP	ERA	SIERA	xFIP
NiJaree Canady	33	5	2	226	0.9	1.55	2.39
Chloe Riassetto	8	3	3	96.2	2.17	5.13	4.35

3 Keys for Texas Tech to win the WCWS

1. The Red Raiders need to play clean defense

NiJaree Canady can pitch a shutout against any team. However, when her defense starts giving away outs, it becomes harder. To be fair with the Red Raiders, most of their miscues came early in the season, and that is expected when starting Glasco credited and senior infielder Alexa Langelier, the team’s primary starter at second base, agrees.

“I think they’ve grown tremendously,” Langelier said. “Starting the season, I feel like there’s a lot of miscues, but they just got really tough mentally, and they just beared down. I don’t think you’ll see a better left side of the infield, in my opinion.”

2. Getting Mihyia Davis on base

Davis has only reached once in the WCWS, and it was a difference-maker in the Oklahoma win, but the Texas Tech leadoff hitter is a vital piece of their offense. Davis is also the only Red Raider batter with a good history against Kavan. Davis had six hits and a .545 batting average against the Texas ace over the last two years. With Davis’ speed and Texas Tech only needing a run or two, she can make the difference.

“When she gets on base, our team’s a whole different level of team,” Texas Tech Gerry Glasco said. “The amazing thing to me is we got through these three games with her, I think, getting on base one time. If you’d have told me before we got here we could win three games and Mihyia only get on base one time, albeit that was a really important at-bat yesterday, I would have probably thought it would be impossible.”

“I think the law of averages is in our favor because that kid, she’s as consistent as consistent can be, if you look over her three-year career. She’s just been a tremendous player for us, and she’s a big game player.”

“It’s not the stage. It’s not the environment because you go back to the Texas A&M game, go back to the Texas game earlier in the year, she’s a big-game player. I just think that so far it’s a very limited amount of at-bats, it’s a very small sample size, and I think — I’m expecting her to come out huge in this next series.”

“I want her to because I want people to see how good she is. I’ve said all year, I think she’s the best center fielder and lead-off hitter in the country, best defensive center fielder in the country, and I want her to show that. So far I don’t think she’s had the — she hasn’t had the performance that shows how good she is, and I want her to show that before we leave here.”

3. NiJaree Canady being NiJaree Canady

It seems silly, but Texas Tech needs Canady to be huge in this series. She’s been incredible this postseason and she’ll probably need to produce with her bat. Canady was very good in the regular season against Texas despite her team losing. In the end, if she doesn’t continue to be incredible, it’s hard to see how Texas Tech brings the trophy back to Lubbock.

More WCWS Champ Series Preview Content:

Texas Tech’s Hailey Toney’s growth from freshman talent to postseason star
How Texas’ Teagan Kavan rose to the occasion against Oklahoma
How Teagan Kavan and NiJaree Canady matchup in WCWS Champ Series