Texas Tech beats Texas, forces Game 3 of WCWS Champ Series

The Texas Tech offense doesn’t need to put up crooked numbers for NiJaree Canady. They just need to do enough for their superstar. That was the case in the Red Raiders’ 4-3 win over Texas to push the 2025 Women’s College World Series to a decisive third game.

Texas Tech head coach Gerry Glasco sparked the rally with another call to the bench. Raegan Jennings led off with a single. Mihyia Davis found her fourth hit of the champ series, sending a double to the pull to put the go-ahead run into scoring position. Lauren Allred walked, loading the bases with two outs.

Freshman Texas pitcher Cambria Salmon had the biggest moment of her young career. Her and Alana Johnson battled for seven pitches, with Johnson wasting a few of Salmon’s crafty changeups. On the seventh pitch, Salmon hit Johnson to allow the first run of the game. In the next at-bat, Salmon left the ball short and Texas catcher Reese Atwood couldn’t block it as Texas Tech added a second run.

“I thought it was huge,” said Glasco about Johnson’s at-bat. “She’s had a lot of pitches there. And they’d been pitching her inside the whole game. I think she thought they would go in. She’s hard-nosed. She’s a tough kid. There wasn’t any way that she was going to step out of the way of that pitch. I think she earned that just by the number of pitches she got in that at-bat.”

The Red Raiders did take advantage of a pair of Texas errors in the seventh. After a Demi Elder walk, Victoria Valdez hit a weak ball to the right side. Joley Mitchell and Kayden Bennett struggled to communicate who would cover the bag leading and put runners at first and third. A sacrifice fly brought in an insurance run. Davis hit a hard grounder at Mitchell, who didn’t field it well, which led to Valdez scoring.

Glasco praised Jennings, who has been a tremendous pinch-hitter this season and accepted her role.

“Coaches make good coaching decisions when they’ve got great players…The kid is an amazing pinch hitter, absolutely amazing,” Glasco said. “So it’s really not a hard call on my part. My wife could tell you to do that, and my mom could tell you to do that.”

“What is important is Raegan goes up there and delivers, and that was a huge moment. It was just a huge moment. Alana taking a hit by pitch, that’s not necessarily a big deal unless it’s 0-0 in the fifth inning of the World Series with bases loaded, it’s a big deal.

“So everything is magnified right now. I just give all the credit to Raegan. It wasn’t very hard coaching. It was pretty easy coaching.”

That was good enough for Canady, who threw another complete game. Texas cut the lead in half in the sixth after Mia Scott’s solo shot. Canady responded by striking out Atwood for a second time and getting Mitchell to pop up.

Texas Tech didn’t make it easy on themselves on the seventh. The first two Texas batters reached via an error and a 0-2 hit-by-pitch. Leighann Goode hit a ball that the outstretched Elder couldn’t reach for an RBI double. Texas pinch-hitter Katie Cimusz brought the Longhorns within one with a sacrifice fly. Canady ended the game by getting Maloney to ground out, then struck out Henry on three pitches.

Canady allowed three runs on six hits while striking out six batters. She seemed to pitch to contact more early and found her Ks later in the game.

Both teams collected two hits in the first, but neither scored. Texas Tech had another early bases-loaded opportunity and came up empty as they did on Wednesday.

Defense was on full display for both teams early on before the Texas miscues. Canady made a diving catch on a bunt attempt. Texas outfielder Ashton Maloney stole a base hit with her own all-out effort.

Texas Tech’s freshmen duo on the left side of the infield each had a nice play early. Hailey Toney had a glove flip to start a double play to erase a walk from Canady. Bailey Lindemuth tried to see if Bennett’s bat was going to go foul and made a quick backhand once she realized it stayed fair to record the out.

Texas nearly scored in the fourth. Scott drew a walk after a nine-pitch at-bat. Atwood was oh so close to a two-run home run that just went foul. Canady responded by striking her out and Mitchell. Katie Stewart hit a jam shot into left field to put runners at the corners. Victoria Hunter grounded out to end the threat.

Scott’s great defensive work had third base showed out again. She nabbed a pair of liners in the third inning to help freshman Salmon, who relieved starter Mac Morgan after two innings. Citlaly Gutierrez got the ball in the sixth, but only recorded one out. Texas brought in Teagan Kavan to limit the damage, but Texas Tech still scored twice.

“It was a little earlier than I wanted to bring (Kavan) in,” said Texas head coach Mike White about his pitching plan. “I was hoping to get a lead and bring her in to close the door. We wanted to extend NiJa a little bit. I know she’s a workhorse, but we got to look at her three, four times through the orders tonight. So it’s another couple of good looks. They got to see Teagan, just three or four batters. So I’m hoping that’s going to play in our favor tomorrow.”

Texas and Texas Tech will decide the 2025 Women’s College World Series on Friday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. Canady, who has thrown 200-plus pitches in the first two games of the championship series, and Kavan will match up once again.

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