Texas Tech is back in the Women’s College World Series championship series after doing the hard thing twice in one day: beating Alabama when its season was on the line. Mia Williams delivered the first blow, and NiJaree Canady finished the job, pushing the Red Raiders into the title round against Texas.
The matchup is drawing immediate attention because Texas Tech needed two victories to stay alive, and it got them in the kind of pressure that strips away anything casual about postseason softball. In the opener, Williams ended it with a walk-off home run for a 5-4 win, turning a tight game into a lifeline. In the second game, Canady pitched Texas Tech to a 2-0 win and sent the Red Raiders on to the championship series.
That second game had its own narrow edges. Texas Tech grabbed a 1-0 lead when Jasmyn Burns took the first pitch of the fourth inning out of the yard, then added another run when Lauren Allred doubled to score Mihyia Davis. The Red Raiders carried a 1-0 lead into the seventh inning and later held a 2-0 edge going to the bottom of the seventh, even after leaving the bases loaded, a missed chance that could have made the finish far more comfortable.
Instead, the result held. That was the difference between surviving and going home. Alabama never found the answer in the final frame, and Texas Tech kept the door closed long enough to reach the stage it had been chasing all day in Oklahoma City.
Now the Red Raiders get Texas in the championship, a meeting that gives Texas Tech a shot at the national title after a day that demanded perfect timing and no margin for error. Williams supplied the swing that kept the season alive, Canady supplied the shutout that carried it forward, and Texas Tech arrives at the series with the simplest possible case: it has already done the difficult part.
