Texas Tech eliminates Oklahoma, advances to WCWS champ series
After giving up the lead in the top of the seventh, NiJaree Canady watched her team pick her up. Lauren Allred hit the walk-off sacrifice fly for Texas Tech, giving the Red Raiders a 3-2 win over Oklahoma to advance to the Women’s College World Series championship series.
The speedy Mihyia Davis hit a single up the middle in the seventh. Hailey Toney then lifted a ball to left field that hit the top of the wall and over a leaping Kasidi Pickering for a double to put the winning run at third with one out. Allred hit a ball to right field and the always aggressive Texas Tech head coach Gerry Glasco sent Davis despite Oklahoma right fielder Sydney Barker being pretty shallow. The throw went wide enough for Davis to score and secure the win for Texas Tech.
“Mihyia’s fast. She thought it was too shallow to tag. If you watch that, she started to go down the line. She thought it was too shallow. I go, no, no, tag,” Texas Tech head coach Gerry Glasco said. “We’re thinking ground ball-go, fly ball-tag. I tell the player think ground ball, think ground ball; I’ll be waiting for you at the front of the circle, and I’ll remind you if it’s a fly ball. She’s so quick I knew she’d make it.”
Canady was nearly flawless throughout the entire game. Barker was a thorn in her side all night long, hitting three bloopers. The single in the seventh proved to be an important piece for Oklahoma.
Abigale Dayton timed up a riseball from Canady back in the fifth, sending a ball to the warning track. Dayton stepped up to the plate in the seventh with her team down to their final out. Canady took advantage early, one strike away from becoming the first pitcher to shut out Oklahoma since 2019. That all changed with one swing. Dayton blasted the 0-2 changeup for a two-run game-tying home run.
In the end, Canady won more of the battles against the relentless Sooner lineup. Canady allowed the lone two runs on five hits, three being Barker singles, while striking out eight batters compared to one walk. Oklahoma only had two at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Oklahoma had a two-out chance in the second. After Cydney Sanders worked a walk, Barker got enough of the ball on a jam shot to flare it over Toney at shortstop. Sanders had a great read on the ball, making it to third on the play. Canady jammed Isabela Emerling, and Toney caught this one to end the threat.
The Sooners made noise in the fifth. Barker found grass again with a ball that a diving Toney couldn’t reach for a leadoff single. Ella Parker had a hard-hit leadoff single in the sixth, but Oklahoma did nothing with it.
“I thought it was a great game,” Glasco said. “I thought NiJa threw a gem of a game. It haunts me that we left a runner twice at third with one out. As an offensive coach, I thought, man, this game, we’re not winning this game 2-0 because you can’t make — when that happens, you know the game will pay you back at some point.
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“So I really thought in my head, I kept thinking, they’re going to tie it 2-2 at some point. I just felt that way. And I wish we could have put one or two more runs up there and give NiJa just a little more leeway. You go to the top of the seventh, get to the 9-hole, one ball, two strike count, and she hit it out and tied it up 2-2.
“It didn’t surprise me at all. Like in my gut you feel that kind of thing happening when it happens. And so I was already mentally prepared. We come in, I think I said to the kids: We didn’t want it to be easy. We don’t want it to be easy. It’s Oklahoma. You knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Let’s go to work right here, win this right here in the bottom of the seventh”
Oklahoma starter Sam Landry threw a ton of changeups against the Red Raiders. The bottom of the order seemed to adjust to it in the second. Alana Johnson fouled off four straight pitches before drawing a walk to win a 10-pitch at-bat. That ended up being a game-changer. Demi Elder lined a triple into the right field corner on the first pitch she saw. That marked the 23rd straight game Texas Tech has scored first.
Victoria Valdez didn’t hit a ball deep enough to left field for Elder to tag, thus Landry was an out away from limiting the damage. Nine-hole hitter and freshman Bailey Lindemuth delivered a huge second run with Canady in the circle. She lined a two-out single into center, which helped push the Red Raiders into the title series.
Texas Tech will play Texas for the 2025 Women’s College World Series national champion, with Game One of the series starting on Monday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. The Longhorns won both games against the Red Raiders in the regular season, including an epic extra-inning battle between Canady and Teagan Kavan.
This also marked the end of Oklahoma’s championship streak.
“I haven’t felt this in a while,” Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso said. “So no one’s feeling sorry for me about that, I’m sure. But you always want to raise a trophy and just celebrate down at Toby Keith’s place. That’s kind of been our place for the last four years.”
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