As Gerry Glasco and the Texas Tech Red Raiders softball team get set to compete in Oklahoma City for their second consecutive trip to the Women’s College World Series, the Red Raiders are looking like a legitimate national title contender.
Texas Tech (57-7 overall, 21-3 Big 12) opens the 2026 Women’s College World Series on Thursday at 11 a.m. CT as the Red Raiders meet up with Samantha Ricketts and the Mississippi State Bulldogs, who are fresh off of a shocking Super Regional win over the Oklahoma Sooners.
Texas Tech enters Oklahoma City with a really sharp resume and a roster that shows this team is ready to compete for a national championship once again. After last season’s trip to the Women’s College World Series coming up just one game short of winning a national title for Texas Tech, the Red Raiders aren’t focused on just being in attendance.
This is a team that was assembled so that they could compete and win it all.
How did Texas Tech get to the 2026 Women’s College World Series?
Texas Tech was able to host the Lubbock Regional and, despite a close call in a matchup with the Ole Miss Rebels, the Red Raiders swept through, beating the Marist Red Foxes and then Ole Miss twice. That set the Red Raiders up with a Super Regional matchup in Gainesville with the Florida Gators.
And things got a bit tense there. The Red Raiders won Game 1 in a slugfest, but Florida punched back in Game 2 and won 10-2. And in an emotion-filled Game 3, Texas Tech was able to come out on top, winning 16-7 in a run-rule victory.
The Red Raiders scored 36 runs across the three Super Regional Games and managed to outlast a Florida team that was built to score against anyone.
Texas Tech’s lineup is among the best in the country
As a team, the Red Raiders have one of the best lineups in the country. Texas Tech looks like a team that can score a dozen runs at a time if you let them, which should worry the rest of the field in the Women’s College World Series.
Texas Tech has put together a .384 batting average, a .721 slugging percentage, a .482 on-base percentage. This is a team that has put up 136 home runs in 64 games.
That’s frightening. Especially when you combine it with the fact that the Red Raiders have stolen 131 bases this season.
The Red Raiders have some of the most dominant pitchers in the country
Gerry Glasco has a wealth of talent that he can turn to when it comes to pitching thanks to the fact that the Red Raiders have both Kaitlyn Terry (who was previously with the UCLA Bruins) and NiJaree Canady (who is in her second season with Texas Tech after starting her career with the Stanford Cardinal).
Canady has put together a 1.78 ERA heading into the Women’s College World Series. So far, she has a 25-6 win-loss record and 226 strikeouts in 161 innings pitched. Terry, meanwhile, has a 1.68 ERA, a 24-1 win-loss record, and has struck out 158 batters in 133.1 innings pitched.
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