OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 Minutes before Texas Tech and Texas touched off the Women\u2019s College World Series finals Wednesday, Red Raiders coach Gerry Glasco told ESPN\u2019s Holly Rowe, \u201cEverything we\u2019ve built in the last year-and-a half has been for this moment, and I believe we\u2019re ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barely 24 hours later, with Tech down 1-0 in the series but clinging to a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth, shortstop Hailey Toney fielded a sharp grounder to her right, pivoted to make the easy throw to third base to get out of the inning \u2014 and missed wildly. Two runners scored, ruining Tech ace Nijaree Canady\u2019s shutout.<\/p>\n
Two innings later, after falling behind 3-1, two Texas Tech fielders let an easy foul ball down the third base line drop between them. Three batters after that, right fielder Lauren Allred couldn\u2019t glove an incoming line drive, resulting in another run to make it 4-1. Even her relay throw to second base was bobbled.<\/p>\n
A year ago, Tech was a Cinderella that made it all the way to the final night of the season before succumbing to Texas. This time, Glasco\u2019s loaded group of all-star transfers was the preseason No. 1 team and yet missed out on a national championship to Texas again<\/a>, this time one night short of the final night of the season.<\/p>\n The 2026 Red Raiders \u2014 which may have been the most expensive non-revenue team of the NIL era \u2014 were not ready.<\/p>\n \u201cAnyone that understands our sport knows that you can\u2019t buy a championship,\u201d said the coach who so many softball fans have accused of trying to buy a championship.<\/p>\n Kentucky men\u2019s basketball, Texas football and a bunch of other big-spending non-champions in other sports would concur with Glasco.<\/p>\n Texas Tech became the villains of its sport for attempting to elevate the previously forlorn program the way so many football and basketball programs have rebuilt theirs: By shelling out dollars to upgrade their rosters. No one knows exactly how much Texas Tech spent, just that it\u2019s well more than anyone else. In a sport where a small handful of players make even $100,000, the Red Raiders had a lineup full of players making well north of that, led by seven-figure pitcher Canady.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t just the dollar figures that irked folks; it was the alleged tampering. The softball establishment was so offended by their tactics \u2014 Tennessee coach Karen Weekly told The Athletic<\/a> last month that ex-Lady Vol Taylor Pannell signed a deal with Tech during last season \u2014 that Power 4 teams refused to play them in non-conference games.<\/p>\n While all that controversy was great for the TV ratings \u2014 not to mention sportswriters \u2014 it put an enormous target on Texas Tech players\u2019 backs. Their entire NCAA tournament run was an adventure, from having to rally from down 8-0 in the seventh inning against Ole Miss in the Regionals to a 10-2 loss at Florida in the Super Regionals (and Florida\u2019s pitchers plunking ex-Gator Mia Williams five times in three games) to an extra-inning loss to Tennessee in their second WCWS game, followed by an extra-inning win against UCLA the next night.<\/p>\n They snapped out of it in time to sweep a two-game semifinal against No. 1 seed Alabama, capped by a vintage Canady complete-game shutout, but still, Tech\u2019s lineup of four .400-plus hitters, eight players with double-digit home runs and two All-American pitchers, felt a bit \u2026 off, this entire postseason.<\/p>\n It may be that no one would have gotten hits off Texas\u2019s history-making pitcher, Teagan Kavan, in this series. But as the wheels came off late in Game 2, with Canady allowing a seventh-inning home run to Texas\u2019s Kayden Henry, followed by all those fielding miscues, one wondered whether the burden of being the bad guys finally did them in.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if (we were) rattled or we just (weren\u2019t) prepared for the pressure,\u201d said Glasco, \u201cbut there were plays we should make that we didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Glasco and his players insisted that finishing as the national runner-up again does not qualify as a disappointment. (\u201cOnly if you\u2019re naive and don\u2019t understand the difficulty of the sport \u2026 did you think this is disappointing,\u201d said Glasco.) His biggest regret, though, was not being able to win a national championship for Canady.<\/p>\n The two-time National Pitcher of the Year, winning in 2024 at Stanford and \u201925 at Texas Tech, elevated not just two programs, but also her entire sport \u2014 through her blistering rise balls and trademark \u201cNiJa Stomp\u201d after big strikeouts. But even she seemed off for much of her final college season.<\/p>\n LIGHT THE TOWER \ud83e\udd18\ud83c\udfc6 pic.twitter.com\/MHNricHLi5<\/a><\/p>\n