OKLAHOMA CITY — “No hard feelings” was not the way Monday night’s semifinals of the

2025 Women’s College World Series

were going to end. It would’ve been impossible.

Too much was at stake at Devon Park, so much on the line for two programs in very different positions less than a year ago. Before Gerry Glasco took over the

Texas Tech softball team

, landed NiJaree Canady through the transfer portal and altered the course of Red Raider history, he was leading the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, an emerging mid-major powerhouse with Division I-level talent dotting the roster.

When he left Lafayette, he took a number of players with him to Lubbock but urged his ace pitcher, Sam Landry, to go to Oklahoma. There wouldn’t have been enough innings for Landry with Canady in the fold, and her best chance at success laid with the Sooners.

Landry made the most of her year in the SEC, being drafted No. 1 in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League and guiding the Sooners to regular-season and co-tournament champion status with a mostly young roster. Glasco has spoken glowingly about his former player throughout the year, even in the lead-up to the WCWS last week.

Landry owns one of Glasco’s dogs. The name of his late daughter, Geri Ann, is written in her glove. When Oklahoma didn’t have her usual No. 12 available as a jersey number, she chose No. 21 to honor Geri Ann. Several of her former Louisiana teammates make up the bulk of Texas Tech’s starting lineup.

Somebody was getting their feelings hurt on Monday. It just wound up being Landry, and the Sooners.

Mihyia Davis’s one-out single, chopped over the head of Landry into center field, started the Texas Tech rally in the bottom of the seventh. Hailey Toney followed with a double to put Davis at third, then Lauren Allred hit a fly ball to right field, deep enough for the speedster Davis to slide in for the game-winning run, sending Texas Tech to the championship series of the Women’s College World Series with a 3-2 win, and ending the Sooners’ reign atop the college softball world after four consecutive national titles.

Two former Ragin’ Cajuns teamed up to end their former Louisiana teammates’ season, and career.

“Sam is a great pitcher,” Allred said of the game-winning at-bat. “Going against her, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, especially with the history we have playing with each other.

“And going to my bat, Coach Hunter (Veach) always says, ‘Doing something really hard, really well, is really fun.’ It reminded me to have fun and just go up there with confidence and trust in all the preparation and training that I had. And I knew Mihyia Davis was probably one of the fastest players in the country, would make something happen as long as I got the ball in play.”

Davis, Texas Tech’s best hitter throughout the season, was hitless in the first two games of the WCWS. She wound up striking out in her first two at-bats against former teammate Landry. Assistant coach Tara Archibald, though, knew Davis was due.

“We kept telling her all week long, ‘Mihyia, you’re going to show up when we need you the most and we know that,’” Archibald said, “and, man, did she ever.”

The Red Raiders didn’t have much time to regroup after the Sooners tied the game in the top of the seventh. Abigale Dayton took an 0-2 offering from Canady for a two-run home run to tie the game. At that point, Canady had appeared to be cruising to another shutout before Sooner Magic took over again.

The best way to combat Sooner Magic, it seems, is with some Raider Power. Toney’s double continued a string of hits the freshman has collected after Canady’s had a (rare) tough inning. She did it in the Lubbock Regional (twice), and again against UCLA with home runs. On Monday, it was her double that put Davis into position for the win.

“That’s the whole team,” Toney said. “We all have each other’s backs no matter what. And she has had our back for the whole season and we’re just trying to have hers.”

Somebody had to leave Devon Park with an L, and Texas Tech made sure it wasn’t them. That didn’t make ending their old friend’s career any easier to swallow.

“Definitely strange,” Alexa Langeliers, another former Louisiana player, said. “I’m used to being on the same field behind her, but she gave it her all. She’s a great pitcher. She’s a great person, and tough end of the season. My heart goes out to her, but it is what it is. I love her to death and she’s just an amazing person.”

Langeleiers called it “surreal,” the whole game and the circumstances leading to Tech’s triumph. The senior second baseman admitted she didn’t think getting to the WCWS finals was going to happen, though the feeling is electric all the same.

That’s especially true for the players who followed Glasco to Texas Tech. Davis and Allred both said that the head coach believed in them, and they trusted him with their careers.

“Coach Glasco always had faith in me,” Allred said, “and I knew that he helped me get to the position I was going to be in, and I wanted to stay by him no matter what.”

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal:

Hurt feelings: How Texas Tech softball ended the Oklahoma dynasty in the Women’s College World Series