Texas rallies to edge Texas Tech in WCWS opener

Wednesday, June 4

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

7:00 p.m.

Texas Tech Athletics

53-13

Texas

55-11

TEXAS TECH

TEXAS

Texas rallies to edge Texas Tech in WCWS opener

June 04, 2025 | Softball

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Red Raiders will look to even the best-of-three series at 7 p.m. Thursday on ESPN

By: Texas Tech Athletics Communications

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – Reese Atwood connected on a two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the sixth to propel No. 6 Texas past Texas Tech, 2-1, Wednesday night in the opening game of the Women's College World Series championship series at Devon Park.

Atwood connected on a misplaced 3-0 pitch from NiJaree Canady that was intended to be outside the zone to load the bases via an intentional walk. Atwood, the Longhorns' cleanup hitter, knocked the 3-0 pitch through the left side, scoring both Kayden Henry and Mia Scott who started the two-out rally with a pair of singles.

"You've got to give credit to Atwood there," Texas Tech head coach Gerry Glasco said. "She wanted to play ball. She wanted to make a play. She made a difference in the game at a time we were trying to take her out of the game. I think that's really a huge thing when you look at the game. You could see when people wanted to really make plays, and you could see when people, when athletes were more tentative."

Texas (55-11) recorded three of its four hits against Canady in the sixth inning as the Longhorns had previously struggled at the plate against the National Pitcher of the Year, reaching via only a two-out hit-by-pitch to Katie Stewart in the second a two-out single from Ashton Maloney in the third. Maloney reached second on a rare wild pitch but was stranded followed a grounder back to the circle from Henry to end the inning.

The loss was Canady's first since April 17 in the series opener at No. 13 Arizona where she finished with a similar stat line, giving up two runs off five hits and seven strikeouts in a 2-1 setback to the Wildcats. The Red Raiders came back to win the next two games in the series with Canady (33-6) combining to throw 11.0 innings the next two days, topping the Wildcats, 10-1, to tie the series before securing a 5-2 victory the following day.

The Red Raiders (53-13) will need a similar effort the next two days from Canady, who struck out seven Longhorns in her sixth-consecutive complete game effort. Canady has now pitched all 27.0 innings for the Red Raiders in the WCWS as she's combined to only allow five earned runs off 15 hits and 32 strikeouts over that stretch.

"As far as NiJa tomorrow, if you've got to pick a pitcher in America to come back and win two games in a row with -- I'll take NiJa," Glasco said. "I hate it. Our offense, when I look after our first two, hitters were 0 for 18, and that's what I'm really frustrated about. That's just really -- we work this hard for the season, you don't want to see your hitters go 0 for 18. But if anybody can do what we need to do to come back, I'm thrilled to have NiJa do it."

Texas Tech broke a scoreless tie only an inning before off a Mihyia Davis two-out RBI that scored Logan Halleman from second. Davis dropped a perfect single in the gap in right center to score Halleman for her second hit of the game as she reached in all three of her at-bats, finishing 2-for-2 with a leadoff single in the first and a walk in the third.

Davis and Hailey Toney kicked off the game with back-to-back singles to give Texas Tech an early scoring opportunity against Texas starter Teagan Kavan (27-5). The Red Raiders loaded the bases with no outs in the first on catcher's interference to Lauren Allred, only for Kavan to escape trouble via a double play and a ground ball back to the circle to end the inning.

Kavan did not allow another hit until Davis' single in the fifth as she retired 11 of the next 12 hitters she faced until Halleman reached via an infield error in the sixth. She worked around four Texas errors to not give up an earned run over 7.0 complete innings, while strikeout out three Red Raiders in the win.

The loss snapped a 12-game winning streak for the Red Raiders, who will look to even the best-of-three series Thursday. First pitch is slated for 7 p.m. CT with television coverage provided on ESPN.

"It's going to take a really tough, resilient team to come back," Glasco said of the motivation heading into Thursday night's rematch. "It always does. But if you can get one win and you get to Game 3, anything's possible."