Texas Tech punched its ticket to a second straight Women’s College World Series on Sunday, beating Florida 16-7 in the deciding game of the Gainesville Super Regional after a lightning delay pushed the start back to about 1:50 p.m. The No. 11 Red Raiders closed out the No. 6 Gators in three games, taking the opener 10-8, dropping the second 10-2 and then breaking the third game open with a relentless barrage of hits and home runs.
Florida never got the clean start it needed. Mia Williams was hit by her fifth pitch of the three-game series, then Jasmyn Burns drove a single to left field that scored Williams and Jackie Lis for an early 2-0 Texas Tech lead. The Red Raiders kept adding on, and Jackie Lis was at the center of it. She hit two home runs in the game, including a three-run shot that scored Logan Halleman and Mihyia Davis to push Texas Tech in front 7-4.
The game still swung back and forth for a while. Florida tied it 7-7 in the bottom of the second inning on an Ava Brown three-run home run, and Texas Tech answered again when Taylor Pannell lined a solo home run on a 3-1 count for an 8-7 lead. Pannell later hit her second home run of the game, and the Red Raiders were ahead 12-7 after that blast, with the offense continuing to punish every mistake Florida made.
For Florida, the pitching numbers told the story. Starter Keagan Rothrock worked two innings and allowed eight runs on six hits. Leah Stevens followed and gave up four runs on four hits in 1.1 innings while striking out two. Texas Tech kept the pressure on until the game was out of reach, while Florida kept trying to climb back into a contest that kept slipping farther away.
The biggest break for the Gators came in the fourth inning, when they loaded the bases and had a chance to cut deeper into the deficit. Texas Tech turned to NiJaree Canady in relief, and she later returned to get the final out of the jam. That was the last real opening Florida had. From there, the Red Raiders finished the job and left Gainesville with the series, the momentum and a return trip to Oklahoma City.
The result capped a series that had already turned sharply once before the finale. Texas Tech opened with a 10-8 win, Florida answered with a 10-2 rout, and the third game settled what had been a back-and-forth matchup between two ranked teams. The last score was the most lopsided of the three, and it sent Texas Tech to its second consecutive Women’s College World Series while Florida was left to watch its season end in a game that got away early and never fully came back.
