OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Reese Atwood hit a go-ahead, two-run single for Texas when Texas Tech ace NiJaree Canady was trying to walk her intentionally in the sixth inning, and the Longhorns beat the Red Raiders 2-1 in Game 1 of the Women’s College World Series finals on Wednesday night.
Teagan Kavan pitched a three-hitter for Texas (54-11), which can secure its first national title with a victory in Game 2 on Thursday night. Texas Tech (53-12) would have to win two straight to claim its first championship in its first WCWS appearance.
Canady allowed four hits and struck out seven, but she has lost four of five career starts against Texas, with two of those defeats for the Red Raiders this season and two for her previous school, Stanford.
This one came down to a pitch that Canady tried but failed to throw well out of the strike zone.
“I made that mistake,” she said. “I think that loss is on me, and I apologize to my team.”
Canady struck out the first two batters in the sixth but ran into trouble when Kayden Henry singled to left and stole second. Mia Scott reached on an infield single, moving Henry to third, and Scott took second without a throw.
With first base open and a 3-0 count on Atwood, Texas Tech catcher Victoria Valdez stood up to set a target well out of the zone for Canady, but the pitch came in letter-high and Atwood hit a hard grounder through the left side.
“You’ve got to give credit to Atwood there,” Texas Tech coach Gerry Glasco said. “She wanted to play ball. She wanted to make a play. She made a difference in the game at a time we were trying to take her out of the game.”
Texas Tech scored in the fifth inning with the help of an obstruction call. Pinch-hitter Logan Halleman reached on a fielding error and Atwood threw her out trying to steal second. Texas Tech challenged the call, and umpires ruled that shortstop Leighanne Goode had obstructed Halleman’s path to the bag.
Mihya Davis singled to right-center to drive in Halleman.
Kavan has not allowed an earned run in four WCWS appearances. Over 24 innings, she has allowed 12 hits and struck out 15. She got 10 groundouts on Wednesday night.
The Red Raiders threatened in the first, loading the bases with no outs. Canady, who leads Texas Tech with 11 homers, hit a grounder to third to start a 5-2-3 double play, and Alexa Langeliers grounded out to the pitcher to end the inning.
“Obviously it was a hard-fought game,” Texas coach Mike White said. “It could have gone either way, a game of inches. A lot of things happening for a 2-1 ballgame for sure. Fortunately we were able to come out on top of it. NiJaree Canady is just an extremely good pitcher. We have one on our side too with Teagan Kavan. They kind of matched toe-to-toe for quite a while, and it was good.”
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