The NCAA softball tournament began with an historic upset and ended with Texas delivering the first national championship in program history.
Facing off against Texas Tech and star pitcher NiJaree Canady, the Longhorns sneaked out a 2-1 win in Wednesday’s opener of the best-of-three championship series before losing 4-3 in the second game, setting up Friday’s winner-take-all finale.
The Longhorns would light up Canady for five runs in the bottom of the first, highlighted by Leighann Goode’s three-run blast, and cruised to a 10-4 win in the decider. After going the distance on Thursday night, Canady lasted just one inning Friday.
To reach this point, Texas had to exorcise years of disappointment at the hands of rival Oklahoma. After capturing a record four national championships in a row heading into this year’s Women's College World Series, the Sooners lost once to the Longhorns in a winner's bracket game and were eventually bounced out of the tournament by Texas Tech.
Meanwhile, Texas A&M became the first No. 1 overall seed to not advance out of the opening weekend, losing twice in as many days against Liberty to make dubious college softball history.
