WCWS championship live updates: Texas vs. Texas Tech Game 1 score, analysis and highlights
Follow our coverage of Game 1 of the WCWS championship series between Texas and Texas Tech from Oklahoma City Imagn Images
But I have no doubt the Longhorns are going to put up a fight. In fact, I really feel like we'll have a pitchers duel in this one and wouldn't be surprised if this goes to extras. Even though Teagan Kavan struggled a little bit toward the end of the regular season and in the Super Regionals against Clemson, since coming to OKC she has locked things down. Mac Morgan looked great in the circle against Tennessee too. While Joley Mitchell and Katie Stewart have been coming in clutch at the plate with power, the big missing piece in Texas' offense right now is catcher Reese Atwood.
She's 0-for-12 in her last four games with a handful of strikeouts. If she doesn't get going tonight, it puts more pressure on these other Longhorns batters. Not that they haven't handled things just fine – especially with how well Leighann Goode has been hitting lately – but having that boost of a bat missing while in OKC has made games a lot tighter.
But, if I have to make a pick, I think I'm going with Texas Tech. The energy around this team right now, from the steal of home to a walk-off sac fly, feels so special. Nija Canady has escaped jams time, and time again and her changeup has been on another level lately. Freshman shortstop Hailey Toney, first baseman Lauren Allred and right fielder Alana Johnson have been on offensive tears lately, leading the Red Raiders on what is currently a 12-game winning streak.
That's hard to top. I think Gerry Glasco is going to continue his aggressiveness on the bases and put these players in scoring position as often as possible to give Canady a lead to work with. The cherry on top of the cake? Mr. Texas Tech himself, Patrick Mahomes, is fully behind this team. ...
Making a pick for Game 1 of the championship series feels almost impossible. Texas Tech is riding such a hot streak through the entire postseason, and it seems like divine luck is on its side right now. On the other hand, Texas' path to a national title feels oh-so-clear with perennial foe of Oklahoma in the way. If we get Teagan Kavan vs. NiJaree Canady in the circle today, it truly feels like it could be anybody's game. ... Lauren Merola / The Athletic
Have to include the Texas lineup here as well. These fans are ready to go! Lauren Merola / The Athletic
Texas Tech fans are lined up to greet their team.
There's still an hour and a half to go until game time, but the first wave of fans seems to be an even split between the two Texas schools. Imagn Images
For the Glasco family, softball is the lingua franca, the language that connects them.
It anchors Texas Tech coach Gerry Glasco to his daughter Tara Archibald, who is also the program's associate head coach. And it connects both of them — even now — to Geri Ann, Gerry's daughter and Tara's youngest sister, who was killed in a car crash in 2019 at just 24 years old.
'For us, it's like you can't go anywhere in the softball community without some sort of tie to Geri Ann,' Tara said. 'Any park I go recruiting at, there's always some kind of memory that involves G. Then the people, even here.'
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For Texas Tech coach, reminders of late daughter are everywhere at WCWS: 'She's been with us' Imagn Images
Texas' Joley Mitchell watched the Texas Tech-Oklahoma semifinal game with her parents on Monday night, saying, 'It was the most entertaining game I'd watched all week.'
Teagan Kavan also watched with her family, some teammates and their families at a restaurant in downtown Oklahoma City. She said there were 'a lot of shocked people in the restaurant, including myself' watching the seventh inning, which included a two-run comeback by Oklahoma before Texas Tech won on a walk-off sacrifice-fly.
Unlike Kavan, Mitchell, had a preference on who she wanted to face in the finals.
'Personally I wanted it to be OU,' Mitchell said. 'If you want to be the man you have to beat the man. I'm happy either way, regardless, and I want to win this thing and I'm ready to go. But I'm happy that we have a challenge right in front of us with NiJa.'
'I personally didn't care …' Kavan said. 'It was going to be a tough road either way.' Imagn Images
There's a lot of talk about NiJaree Canady's lucrative million-dollar NIL deal to join Texas Tech, but coach Gerry Glasco doesn't actually think the star ace's value is quantifiable.
'I don't think you can put a value on what she's meant to Texas Tech,' he said Tuesday. 'When you think of the magnitude of what she brought to our program in publicity. … What's the value of something like that? I don't know. And then to deliver. She's delivered over and over and over.
'While we were growing as a team around her, she was just in that circle, a rock.'
It is both Canady's — who reached the WCWS with Stanford the past two seasons — and Texas Tech's first trip to the WCWS championship series, a feeling that hasn't 'fully set in yet' for Canady.
'To be able to say we're two games away, it's just amazing,' she said Tuesday. Imagn Images
Texas Tech coach Gerry Glasco was lightheartedly asked Tuesday if he brought any other pitchers with him besides the wunderkind NiJaree Canady to the WCWS. He said, 'Yeah, we did. They're dying to go.'
'When she gets her shot, Chloe (Riassetto) will be magnificent,' Glasco said. 'We're going to need more than NiJa in this three-game series, most likely.'
Glasco said he thinks Canady — whom he called "Superman out there in the circle" — could pitch three more games if needed, but he thinks the team likely will turn to more than one pitcher in pursuit of its first-ever title.
Last year, in the WCWS semifinals, NiJaree Canady fell to Texas, 1-0, while she was still with Stanford, which sent the Longhorns to the championship series. Something tells me she's out for revenge this year. Texas is now through to the championship series for the third time in four years and has yet to hoist the trophy. This was not the matchup I would have predicted at the beginning of the season, but boy are we in for a good one.
Because of Texas' move to the SEC, Texas and Texas Tech didn't meet in conference play. But they did play a nonconference game, all the way back on Valentine's Day. Texas won that one 2-1 in nine innings. They also played on Feb. 16 with the Longhorns shutting out Tech 11-0. Texas was ranked No. 1 at that time. Texas Tech, meanwhile, has gotten a LOT better since February.
We have an in-state showdown for the championship series. Both Texas and Texas Tech are looking for their first championship in program history. Teagan Kavan vs. NiJaree Canady. Two incredibly tough, gritty teams. We are in for one heck of a series starting Wednesday.
Other than Tennessee beating Florida 11-3 on Friday, every game in this Women's College World Series has been decided by three or fewer runs.
The other 11 games have been decided by 19 runs. Unbelievable.
We've had five walk-off wins at the WCWS this week: Oklahoma's 4-3 win over Tennessee on Thursday
UCLA's 4-2 win over Oregon on Thursday
Oregon's 6-5 win over Ole Miss on Friday
Tennessee's 5-4 win over UCLA on Sunday
Texas Tech's 3-2 win over Oklahoma on Monday
How Texas advanced to the championship series:
Regional Defeated Eastern Illinois 10-2
Defeated Michigan 16-4
Defeated UCF 9-0
Super Regional Lost to Clemson 7-4
Defeated Clemson 7-5
Defeated Clemson 6-5
WCWS Defeated Florida 3-0
Defeated Oklahoma 4-2
Defeated Tennessee 2-0
How Texas Tech advanced to the championship series:
Regional Defeated Brown 6-0
Defeated Mississippi State 10-1
Defeated Mississippi State 9-6
Super Regional Defeated Florida State 3-0
Defeated Florida State 2-1
WCWS Defeated Ole Miss 1-0
Defeated UCLA 3-1
Defeated Oklahoma 3-2
John and Tracy Sellers arrived in Lubbock, Texas, the evening of Monday, July 22, with dinner reservations and an intention: to woo the best college softball player in the world to play for Texas Tech.
The dinner was at Las Brisas, a white-tablecloth steakhouse just south of Texas Tech's campus that serves up lobster guacamole and a 25-ounce bone-in ribeye. The player was NiJaree Canady, USA Softball's Collegiate Player of the Year.
There were six seats at the table: the Sellers, Marc McDougal (a board member of the Matador Club, a Texas Tech-affiliated name, image and likeness collective), Canady and her parents. No coaches or university administrators. Just a few well-connected Tech supporters and a family with a menu full of options. The group made fast friends over a nearly three-hour meal.
Canady, a 6-foot pitching phenom from Topeka, Kan., was visiting Lubbock for the first time. She was less than two months removed from leading Stanford to the Women's College World Series semifinals as a sophomore, garnering mainstream headlines in the process. A few weeks later, she entered the transfer portal, the biggest star of a burgeoning sport hitting the open market.
GO FURTHER
The unprecedented million-dollar recruitment of the nation's best softball player
A look at the Texas Longhorns: Coach: Mike White
Record: 54-11
Players to watch: Mia Scott, .438 average, 8 HR, 35 RBIs
Ashton Maloney, .423, 23 RBIs
Kayden Henry, .406, 32 SB
Reese Atwood, .398, 21 HR, 86 RBIs
Joley Mitchell, .382, 17 HR, 63 RBIs
Katie Stewart, 379, 17 HR, 78 RBIs
Teagan Kavan, 26-5, 2.33 ERA, 224 K
Citlaly Gutierrez, 10-1, 2.57 ERA
Mac Morgan, 11-4, 3.23 ERA
A look at the Texas Tech Red Raiders: Coach: Gerry Glasco
Gerry Glasco Record: 53-12
Players to watch: Raegan Jennings, .393 average
Mihyia Davis, .376, 26 RBIs, 26 SB
Lauren Allred, .368, 9 HR, 54 RBIs
Alexa Langeliers, .317 8 HR, 40 RBIs
NiJaree Canady, .297, 11 HR, 34 RBIs; 33-5, 0.90 ERA, 304 K
Chloe Riassetto, 8-3, 2.17 ERA
Samantha Lincoln, 8-3
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