OKLAHOMA CITY – Teagan Kavan pitched a complete-game three-hitter, Katie Stewart hit her fourth home run in as many games, and Texas opened the Women’s College World Series championship round with a 7-3 victory over Texas Tech on Wednesday night.
The No. 2 seed Longhorns (52-12) can wrap up their second consecutive national championship with a victory in Game 2 on Thursday night.
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Eleventh-seeded Texas Tech (61-9) took a 1-0 lead on a one-out solo home run by Mihyia Davis in the first inning.
The lead didn’t last long as Texas scored five runs in the bottom of the first. Stewart’s two-run homer that cleared the bleachers in center field gave Texas a 2-1 lead. It was her seventh career home run in the World Series, including one in each of the past four games. The Longhorns tacked on three runs on a run-scoring infield single by Kaiah Altmeyer and a two-run triple by Ashton Maloney.
Kavan cruised into the fifth, not allowing another hit until Mia Williams went deep to straightaway center field for her 27th home run of the season, a two-run blast that made it 6-3.
Kavan (29-6), the WCWS most outstanding player in the Longhorns’ run to the 2025 championship, finished with six strikeouts, two walks and a hit batter.
Kaitlyn Terry (24-3) allowed four runs in 1 1/3 innings.
Texas Tech coach Gerry Glasco took NiJaree Canady, the two-time national pitcher of the year, out of the game after she faced six batters in relief in the first and second innings. She is the Red Raiders’ presumptive starter in Game 2.
Texas defeated Texas Tech in three games in the 2025 championship round. This is the first championship rematch since UCLA defeated California in 2003 and ’04, the last two title games before the championship series was implemented. ___
AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports