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One night after ace NiJaree Canady took the blame for a foiled intentional walk that turned into a game-changing hit for Texas, the Red Raiders are wrapping two hands around their 2024-25 motto.

“To be the best come from behind team in America,” Canady said. “So, we’re just doing that again.”

The Longhorns (55-11) can win their first national title in softball when the teams take the field for Game 2 on Thursday at the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City. Texas Tech (53-13) will look to force a winner-take-all Game 3.

Texas’ Reese Atwood delivered the clutch hit with Canady in unfamiliar territory. She struck out the first two batters in the sixth inning when things got sticky.

Kayden Henry singled to left and stole second. Mia Scott followed with an infield single and took second before Texas Tech then tried to intentionally walk Atwood to put the force on all around.

Canady, a junior, said no matter how often she practiced the intentional walk — not often, she added — it’s a play she has to make flawlessly as a college pitcher.

Texas Tech coach Gerry Glasco called for the intentional walk from Canady for the first time this season. He said he’s written down the need to replicate the situation in practice settings in his 2025-26 planning book.

After Wednesday’s 2-1 loss, he made it clear he was going to be spending some time second-guessing himself for what was intended to become the “IBB” in the scorebook.

“With a base open, I don’t want to pitch to what I think may be the best hitter in the country,” Glasco said. “It made sense — to me, it made sense to load the bases, let’s go to the 4 hole. Let’s don’t take a chance. She’s gotten clutch hit after clutch hit after clutch hit all of her career. Maybe it was the wrong decision. Maybe we should have went at her.

“I didn’t realize it was her first intentional walk all year. You think about it, I guess we haven’t. I know we pitched around people, and maybe I should have just said pitch around her because we definitely have pitched around several people this year, but we didn’t stand up. Maybe that was a coaching error on my part.”

Glasco was not ready to make a call whether he’d bring Canady back for Thursday’s elimination game. He was instituting one change and had the team hit Thursday morning after relenting to his team leaders and not hitting early as planned Wednesday because his team was tired.

“I let them have the morning off. We definitely will hit (Thursday). We’ll see how everybody feels at that. (Even) if she doesn’t feel good — she’s going to want the ball. If you know NiJa, she’s not going to complain, she’s not going to tell you. We’ll have to really dig, and hopefully the trainer can get her to communicate enough that he’ll get a good assessment.

“I want to win, but also I want to be sure we leave this season healthy for the future.”

–Field Level Media