OKLAHOMA CITY — Texas had been knocking on the door.
On Friday, the Longhorns kicked it down — and beat arguably the biggest name in the sport to do so.
Texas beat Texas Tech 10-4 to win the decisive Game 3 of the Women’s College World Series championship series and the first national title in program history.
The Longhorns (56-12) jumped on star Red Raiders pitcher NiJaree Canady early.
Texas had managed just 10 combined hits off Canady in the first two games of the series before amassing five in the first inning on Friday, including a three-run home run by Leighann Goode that put the Longhorns ahead 5-0.
“It was like, ‘Holy cow, what’s going on?'” Longhorns coach Mike White said. “We haven’t had the (early) lead yet.”
Texas Tech had scored first in 25 consecutive games.
The Longhorns added a run in the fourth before Mia Scott’s grand slam in the fourth put them up 10-0.
“This is everything I dreamed of as a kid,” Texas’ Joley Mitchell said. “I can’t imagine doing it with anybody else.”
The title is also the first for White, who took Oregon to the WCWS five times and led Texas to the championship series in two of the previous three seasons.
Those recent Longhorns teams couldn’t get past Oklahoma at the end. This time around they knocked the Sooners into the losers bracket to overcome that hurdle, then took down Canady and the Red Raiders (54-14).
“You can’t practice being here, you’ve got to be here to do this,” White said. “My journey (of seven years at Texas) has paid off. And I’m proud of these young ladies for helping me achieve that part of my goal.”
While Canady was the face of the sport this season, it was Texas pitcher Teagan Kavan who took over at the WCWS.
Kavan threw 31 2/3 innings in Oklahoma City without allowing an earned run, finishing 4-0 with a save en route to WCWS Most Outstanding Player honors.
In the Friday win, Kavan allowed eight hits and struck out three. All four Texas Tech runs were unearned.
Kavan is 5-0 all-time starting against Canady, including winning both matchups in the championship series.
Kavan (28-5) downplayed her success vs. Canady.
“I think it’s my team that gets the wins, not just me,” she said. “It’s our whole team. That’s what we kept talking about.”
Kavan was a big reason the Longhorns succeeded all season and gave them a major lift once they advanced to Oklahoma City.
She threw a shutout in the opener against Florida. Two days later, on the day her grandmother died, Kavan held reigning four-time champion Oklahoma to just two unearned runs.
She threw three no-hit innings of relief in the semifinal victory against Tennessee, then held the Red Raiders to just three hits and an unearned run in Wednesday’s Game 1.
“We were careful throughout the year not to overthrow her and enabling her to have the energy at the end,” White said.
Canady had thrown all 36 innings in the event before being lifted after the first inning Friday. Still, she said her heavy workload in the WCWS wasn’t the reason for her tough performance.
“I feel fine,” Canady said. “Like I said before, I have all summer to rest.”
While Canady (34-7) had been in the WCWS each of the previous two seasons at Stanford before transferring to Lubbock, this was her first championship series appearance and it was Texas Tech’s first WCWS appearance.
“So many teams here have had to kind of get to the World Series first and learn a lesson, and then go back and obviously learn,” Canady said. “Like Texas did it last year. … So yes, this year wasn’t how we wanted it to go, not how we wanted it to end, but to be able to go have a team that didn’t even make it to a regional the year before and to push … to the national championship series, I feel like that means a lot.”
Kayden Henry finished 3-for-4 with two runs for the Longhorns, while three other Texas players had multiple hits.
Texas Tech’s Hailey Toney went 3-for-4 with three RBIs, and Mihyia Davis had two hits.
–Field Level Media
