Texas Tech Beats Florida in Wild Super Regional Opener
Never back down, never what?
Texas Tech was unfazed once again to win game one of the Super Regional over No. 6 Florida in Gainesville. A late 7-1 lead evaporated into an 8-8 tie heading into the seventh, but no stress for Tech. In a return to the Swamp for Mia Williams, and some reportedly rowdy fans in the crowd about it, Williams smacked that mental monster over the left field wall for a two-run game-winning bomb.
“Yeah, super satisfying,” Williams said when asked how satisfying the moment was. “Going up there, sticking to my plan and executing what I need to do for my team.”
Of course she was sure to remind everyone you need two wins not one to move on.
“The job’s not done yet.”
The not over until it’s over mentality has been a theme of the postseason so far for this Red Raider team. Last weekend they stared at an 8-0 hole against Ole Miss and found a way out. Friday afternoon they watched a six-run lead disappear in one of the loudest environments in college softball and never blinked.
After falling behind 1-0 in the opening inning, the Red Raiders started stacking pressure inning by inning until the breakthrough finally came in the fourth.
Kaitlyn Terry reached to start the inning and eventually scored on a Hailey Toney RBI double before Lagi Quiroga followed with one of her own. Mia Williams capped the rally with another RBI as three straight extra-base hits suddenly flipped a one-run deficit into a 3-1 Tech advantage.
Glasco said afterward his team liked what it was seeing from the start.
“When you play an SEC team the quality of Florida and you only have one strikeout, that says a whole lot about your team.”
The offense only kept coming.
Lauren Allred, who carried momentum over from the regional round, crushed a three-run homer in the fifth that stretched the lead to 6-1 before Quiroga launched a solo shot over the scoreboard to make it 7-1. Allred finished with three hits and four RBIs while Quiroga reached base three times and scored three runs.
But as one of the nation’s top offenses, Florida had no plans of fading quietly.
Ava Brown started the comeback with a two-run blast before Townsen Thomas followed with another homer moments later. Florida chipped away again in the sixth before Brown launched her second home run of the afternoon, a three-run shot that suddenly erased everything and tied the game at 8-8.
For a moment, momentum had completely changed dugouts.
Not that Texas Tech cared.
“I just think our lineup is so deep,” Allred said. “We’re never out of the fight until the game’s over.”
The seventh inning started with Quiroga drawing a walk. Then Williams stepped in.
One swing.
One loud answer.
Glasco called it “a tremendous hit” considering the circumstances after watching Florida storm all the way back.
Canady, who had entered in relief of Terry in the sixth, recovered to slam the door from there, retiring the Gators in the seventh after Florida has tied it off her the inning before.Glasco later said he wanted her back out there specifically because of moments like that.
“She’s made for these types of moments,” Allred said of Canady.
Florida head coach Tim Walton admitted afterward his team simply did not play clean enough despite the comeback effort. A hanful of errors and misplays and a lack of good body language were talking points in the Gators postgame. Or to put it more simply in Walton’s eyes:
“We played terribly… We will play better tomorrow.”
Perhaps Tech had a bit to do with that. “Jobs not done” though as Texas Tech now sits one win away from its second straight Women’s College World Series appearance. Their mindset remains the same.
“Just keeping it calm and playing Red Raider softball, how we know how to play,” Williams said on the team’s mindset in this environment. “The moments are going to come.”
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