Texas wins first-ever Women's College World Series championship
For the first time in program history, the Texas Longhorns are Women’s College World Series champions. Texas jumped on Texas Tech ace NiJaree Canady in the first and never looked back, winning 10-4 to capture that exclusive trophy.
“Hats off to my team,” head coach Mike White said. “We faced adversity early on in the season losing Vivi Martinez to an ACL injury. Went through some trials and tribulations but finally we came through. We went through a patch where we didn’t play very well, but we stuck together and they came together as a team and they had each other’s backs. And they were determined.
“And same thing happened last night, and that was the talk this morning was having each other’s backs and being ready to play and compete against one of the best pitchers in the country.”
The Longhorns were locked in on Canady from the start. Facing off against the superstar for the third straight day, Texas made plenty of early contact. Neither Kayden Henry or Mia Scott drove the ball very hard, but Henry beat out an infield single and Scott found a hole on the right side.
Reese Atwood and Katie Stewart lined back-to-back singles to put Texas up early. Canady nearly escaped the jam, striking out Joley Mitchell. However, Leighann Goode had other plans. The Texas shortstop smashed a three-run home run – her 10th of the season and the fourth since May 17 – to add the exclamation point to the five-run first inning.
Texas Tech head coach Gerry Glasco made the decision to turn to Chloe Riassetto at the start of the second, the first time Canady hadn’t thrown a pitch for the Red Raiders in Oklahoma City. The lefty did well early on, aside from allowing two straight doubles from Atwood and Stewart in the third.
The wheels fell off in the fourth. Riassetto allowed three straight hits before Scott put the possible run rule into effect, hitting a grand slam to put Texas up 10.
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Teagan Kavan had another gem. After hitting Lauren Allred with the 13th pitch of the at-bat, Kavan cruised. She retired seven straight batters before Hailey Toney collected Texas Tech’s first hit of the game in the fourth.
Texas Tech did battle to extend the game. Raegan Jennings had another pinch-hit single to open the fifth with the Red Raiders down to their final three outs. After Kavan recorded two outs, Bailey Lindemuth and Mihyia Davis had two infield singles, Scott’s errant throw allowed the first run to score. Toney came through again with a two-run single to keep the game alive.
Kavan, who was not tagged for an earned run despite Texas Tech scoring another unearned run in the seventh. She allowed eight hits and ended the WCWS without allowing an earned run in 37.2 innings.
“Obviously, NiJa was tired,” White said. “If that was a fresh arm, so I don’t know if our strategy of playing off on game two by throwing the rest of our staff — which we thought we could win with them, too; don’t get me wrong — it just didn’t turn out that way. But saving Teagan for this opportunity obviously it paid off. So the players can make you look good in those decisions.”
Canady gave it her all in the championship series, but in the end, Texas was the stronger team and cemented its place in college softball history.
More from Softball America:
Softball America Transfer Wire
Mike White finally reaches the college softball mountain top
Teagan Kavan’s historic WCWS performance leads Texas to first national championship
