OKLAHOMA CITY — Texas ace Teagan Kavan struck out five batters in the final two innings to back a strong start from Citlaly Gutierrez at the Women’s College World Series, and Kayden Henry homered to lead the Longhorns to a 4-1 victory over Texas Tech on Thursday night at Devon Park as they repeated as NCAA Division I softball champions.
A night after winning 7-3 in the opening game of the WCWS finals — a rematch of the teams that made last year’s best-of-three championship series — Texas (53-12) trailed 1-0 after four innings, but a bases-loaded throwing error by shortstop Hailey Toney allowed two unearned runs to score in the fifth for a 2-1 lead against the Red Raiders (61-12).
Henry homered off Texas Tech senior ace NiJaree Canady to begin the seventh, and Leighann Goode singled to drive in the final run.
Texas Tech, the Big 12 regular-season champion and the No. 11 seed for the NCAA tournament’s 64-team field, jumped in front in the third on an RBI single by Lauren Allred.
Canady retired 11 batters in a row after Henry singled to begin the game before disaster struck in the fifth.
Kaiah Altmeyer and Ashton Maloney led off with singles before Logan Halleman made a leaping catch in left field with one out to save at least one run. Canady walked slugger Katie Stewart to load the bases and appeared to escape the jam before Toney’s error.
Halleman also robbed Altmeyer of an extra-base with a runner on first in the sixth to keep it 2-1 in favor of Texas, the Southeastern Conference tournament champion and the national No. 2 seed.
Gutierrez (11-3) allowed one run on three hits in 4 1/3 innings, while Kavan notched her fifth save of the season a day after improving to 28-6 this year as the winning pitcher in the series opener.
Freshman Hannah Davis got two outs in the fifth before Gutierrez reentered with the bases loaded to get the final out.
Kavan, a right-handed junior, earned the most outstanding player award for the second year in a row, this time after becoming the first pitcher with two shutouts and two saves in one WCWS. She sat the Red Raiders down in order in the seventh on a groundout and back-to-back swinging strikeouts, and eighth-year head coach Mike White’s team celebrated the program’s second title a year after its first.
Canady (29-7) went the distance and allowed four runs (two earned) on eight hits with three walks. Lauren Allred had an RBI single in the third to put Texas Tech up 1-0, but unlike 2025, the Red Raiders were unable to force a third game in Oklahoma City this year.
The WCWS began the previous Thursday with eight title hopefuls competing in double-elimination play. Texas and Texas Tech each came through the losers bracket to reach the finals, with the Longhorns beating seventh-seeded Tennessee twice and the Red Raiders doing the same against top-seeded Alabama in the semifinal round Monday.