Texas rolls past Texas Tech to win first WCWS championship
The Texas softball team left behind recent Women's College World Series heartbreak and experienced a new emotion Friday: championship euphoria.
The Longhorns beat Texas Tech 10-4 in the winner-take-all third game of the WCWS finals in Oklahoma City to capture the first title in program history.
Texas was spurred by a pair of massive home runs -- one in the first inning that provided the first crack in the armor of one of the nation's best pitchers. Then a grand slam by Mia Scott in the fourth that nearly ended the game early.
Texas had finished runner-up to rival Oklahoma in two of the previous three championship finals and come up empty in seven previous WCWS appearances, all since 1998.
It was nearly a run-rule ending for Texas after it scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth to go ahead 10-0 and set up a the win if it led by eight or more runs after five innings.
Texas Tech added some intrigue by scoring three runs in the top of the fifth, all with two outs.
In spite of the Red Raiders' resilience, the Longhorns proved those who voted them preseason No. 1 right, and it started early. Leighann Goode, who assisted on the final out of the game, lined a three-run homer to center to put the Longhorns ahead 5-0 in the first.
That blast accomplished something no other team -- including Texas -- had been able to manage throughout the WCWS: It chased Texas Tech starting pitcher NiJaree Canady from the game after one inning. Canady had thrown every pitch for the Red Raiders during the WCWS.
That meant Canady was starting -- and attempting to finish -- her third game in three days against the same opponent. Her fatigue, admitted by Texas Tech coach Gerry Glasco during an in-game interview, and Texas' familiarity with the 34-game winner was evident right away.
Kayden Henry, Texas' No. 2 hitter and center fielder, ignited the five-run first by beating out what appeared to be a routine grounder to shortstop. Scott, Reese Atwood and Katie Stewart followed with singles to score the Longhorns' first two runs before Goode's homer three batters later. Stewart added an RBI double in the third inning to make it 6-0.
Scott's nearly decisive blast came two innings later, after consecutive hits by Kaydee Bennett, Ashton Maloney and Henry.