Texas Tech vs Texas Softball: What to Expect in WCWS All-Texas Championship Series
The Women’s College World Series Championship Series stage is set with two programs defending the Lone Star State.
The Texas Longhorns and the Texas Tech Red Raiders will battle in a best-of-three series starting on Wednesday night and continuing through possibly Friday to decide who will be crowned National Champion.
The Longhorns are back for the second consecutive year and third time overall and seeking their first-ever national title, while the Red Raiders are in the finals for the first time in program history. Both teams have gone undefeated in the WCWS to get here, so we may be in for some nail-biting games, especially considering there has never been an in-state championship series.
Regardless of the outcome of this series, history will be made.
"I think it's really awesome," Texas' Joley Mitchell told Nathan Giese of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. "I'm glad to be part of it just in general, but I do think it's pretty awesome we're going to bring a National Championship to the state of Texas no matter who it is. It's exciting for the sport as well, and I'm happy for both teams to be in it."
The former Big 12 Conference foes have met up several times before, with the Longhorns leading the series 61-12, and taking all 12 of the last 12 matchups. But Texas head coach Mike White isn’t focused on the past.
"Whatever has happened before has happened," White told Giese of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. "All we can do is take our experiences, which we've had plenty the last few years, both good and bad, and use those to our advantage to be able to play against one of the best pitchers in the game right now."
Here’s everything you need to know before the action kicks off on Wednesday night.
Texas Longhorns
The Longhorns pulled off one historic win over the Oklahoma Sooners on their path to the finals. Late runs from Texas and an outstanding performance from Teagan Kavan in the circle beat the Sooners 4-2 for the first time ever during the World Series and for the first time since 2014 in the state of Oklahoma.
Texas lost both of its World Series final games to OU in 2022 and 2024, so that win this year to send them on to the semifinals added fuel to their fire to take down Tennessee. But that matchup was by no means easy. They had to get by the Lady Vols’ ace Karlyn Pickens first, and they just managed to get two runs out of it while Mac Morgan and Kavan held off Tennessee’s bats to advance to the final.
If the Longhorns want revenge for their sweep to Oklahoma just a year ago this week, the bats need to wake up, especially if the Red Raiders are throwing NiJaree Canady in the circle. Their best bat, Reese Atwood, has not recorded a hit since the second game versus Clemson in Super Regionals.
Kavan has made a massive turnaround since struggling early in the postseason, while senior Morgan has stepped up to the occasion, coming in for relief and even starting against Tennessee.
national championship bound, y'all! 🤘#HookEm | @NCAASoftball pic.twitter.com/PVzNsGpNKc
— Texas Softball (@TexasSoftball) June 2, 2025
Though the Longhorns have yet to win a championship, they have been here before and know the pressure of the big stage. Will the experience help them in tough moments throughout the next few games? Or will they end up runners-up once again?
Texas Tech Red Raiders
Similar to Texas, the Red Raiders had to dig deep against Oklahoma to move on. In one dramatic game, Texas Tech was two outs and one strike away from taking the game, until Abigale Dayton hit a two-run homer to tie the game.
But Gerry Glasco’s squad handled the pressure well. Using small ball to get runners on the bases, Lauren Allred hit a sacrifice fly to get the walk-off win, made history by eliminating the four-time defending champions, and clinched their first-ever championship series appearance.
Ace NiJaree Canady has carried the defense thus far for the Red Raiders. Since Super Regionals, she has thrown every pitch for the team. That’s 362 astonishing consecutive pitches. As long as she doesn’t get burnt out, her ERA of 0.86 is going to be very tough on the Longhorns.
Texas Tech pitcher NiJaree Canady has thrown 362 (!!!) consecutive pitches for the Red Raiders. That's EVERY PITCH of the Super Regionals and #WCWS. Ace.
— MLB (@MLB) June 3, 2025
(📽️ : @ESPN)pic.twitter.com/ET3aUJbYh8
While the Longhorns do have the second-best batting average in the NCAA and just survived some of SEC’s best pitching like Pickens, the Texas Tech defense is going to have to be sharp right behind Canady if they want to continue making history for this program.
Where to Watch
All games will be aired on ESPN.
Game 1: Wednesday, June 4: Texas Tech vs. Texas, 8 p.m. ET
Game 2: Thursday, June 5: Texas vs. Texas Tech, 8 p.m. ET
Game 3 (if necessary): Friday, June 6: Texas Tech vs. Texas, 8 p.m. ET
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Nicole Reitz graduated from Indiana University Indianapolis with a degree in sports journalism in 2022 and has been writing about softball and baseball since 2018 .Her work has been published in various publications like Softball America, the Indianapolis Star, and SoxOn35th.
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