It Took Everybody: Texas Tech Outlasts UCLA in WCWS Thriller
“Have each other’s backs!”
That’s what Texas Tech players immediately yelled to each other as they walked into the dugout after UCLA stunned everyone in Devon Park with a three-run seventh inning that erased what had been a 6-3 lead.
The fans may have been stunned. Gutted even. The players were resolved. What’s next?
That’s what this team has been about all season though. It’s what the postseason has only reinforced.
Texas Tech vs. Everybody towels waved throughout a sea of red as a rowdy Red Raider crowd provided energy through every tense moment. But for the players, everything kept coming back to each other.
Down eight runs and down to their final out against Ole Miss? Done.
Season on the line in a hostile road environment against a Florida program that had never lost a postseason series at home to anyone not named Georgia? Done.
Facing the most prolific home run-hitting lineup in NCAA softball history, watching a late lead disappear and then finding a way to punch right back in extra innings? Done.
For each other.
And that’s exactly how Texas Tech survived another Women’s College World Series classic Sunday night.
A Kaitlyn Terry legacy performance in the circle and at the plate. NiJaree Canady stepping in time and again to extinguish rallies and record the final outs. Mihyia Davis creating chaos on the bases. Desirae Spearman recording her first career Women’s College World Series hit. Victoria Valdez bringing energy to every inning. Mia Williams launching her 25th home run of the season.
It took all of that.
It took everybody.
“I think it became apparent, too, the message that it has to be about the team,” head coach Gerry Glasco said. “No one person has to carry this. We got way too much talent for one person to feel like we have to carry us every second.”
The result was an 8-7 nine-inning victory over UCLA that sends Texas Tech to the Women’s College World Series semifinals for the second straight season in just the program’s second trip to Oklahoma City.
The offense wasted no time setting the tone.
Williams opened the game with a single, Davis followed with a double and Lauren Allred drove in the game’s first run just three pitches into the contest. UCLA answered immediately with a two-run home run from Jordan Woolery in the bottom half to take the lead, but Texas Tech punched back behind a leadoff homer from Jasmyn Burns in the second inning before a bases-loaded walk from Jackie Lis restored the lead.
The back-and-forth would continue all night.
Canady started in the circle before Terry entered in relief during the third inning with the bases loaded and nobody out. The junior escaped the jam and immediately settled into one of the best stretches of her season.
At one point Terry retired eight consecutive Bruins while striking out seven over five innings of work.
“What I saw was greatness,” Glasco said of Terry. “Tonight I saw her and her greatness giving everything she had to our ballclub.”
That made the next decision even tougher.
After Terry surrendered a leadoff home run in the seventh, Glasco made the walk to the circle and turned to Canady.
“It’s kind of scary to go out there and tell KT you’re taking her out,” Glasco joked. “Makes you take a deep breath.”
The move was less about Terry and more about trust.
Terry and Canady once again shared responsibility against one of the most dangerous lineups in college softball, trading innings and matchups while Glasco also tried to preserve both arms for Monday.
“We got a doubleheader tomorrow,” Glasco said. “It’s really important we didn’t burn them up tonight.”
The trust between the two aces was evident all game. When Glasco later asked Terry if she wanted the ball back after one of the pitching changes, her answer summed up the relationship.
“She said, ‘Let her have it. She’s got it,'” Glasco recalled.
Before that moment, Texas Tech appeared to seize control in the middle innings.
Williams launched her 25th home run of the season in the sixth. Davis finished 3-for-6. Toney and Taylor Pannell added two hits apiece. Spearman picked up her first career Women’s College World Series hit. Nearly every player Glasco called upon found a way to contribute.
“If you look, we used almost everybody on the roster,” Glasco said. “Which is exactly what you want.”
But then came the seventh.
A leadoff home run cut the lead to two before Woolery’s second home run of the night tied the game and sent the contest into a familiar place for Texas Tech.
Chaos.
With the crowd chanting every single player’s name that went to the plate in between Raider Powers…the the team delivered what would be that final blow in the ninth.
Pannell opened the inning with a single before Terry stepped to the plate and delivered the biggest swing of her night, ripping a double into left-center field to score the go-ahead run. She was a dawg in the circle and at the plate in every big moment.
“It was great,” Terry said. “Just trusting the ball in the circle, trusting my preparation at the plate. Just knowing this team is going to have my back.”
Texas Tech added another insurance run moments later before Canady returned to the circle one final time.
UCLA scored once and brought the tying run aboard, but Canady recorded a flyout and strikeout to end one of the best games of this Women’s College World Series.
Asked afterward how games like Ole Miss and Florida helped prepare Texas Tech for another heavyweight fight, Mia Williams kept it simple.
“I think every game from those games and here on out is going to be a fight, a dogfight,” Williams said.
Next comes the biggest one yet.
Texas Tech will need to beat top-seeded Alabama twice Monday to advance to the Women’s College World Series Championship Series.
Daunting for some, perhaps.
For this group, it all comes back to the same thing.
Have each other’s backs. If there are outs left to be played they will always beleive they have a chance.
“We’re fighting for each other,” said Canady. “We’re just trying to have each other’s back. The same way we’ve been playing all year.”
They have that chance once again Monday versus No. 1 Alabama starting at 6pm. A win would force a winner take all game for a sport in the WCWS finals at approximately 930 pm.
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