The Red Raiders took Game 1 of the Gainesville Super Regional off the offensive heroics of a familiar face.
Mia Williams returned to her old stomping grounds and drove in the winning runs in the top of the seventh inning to push Texas Tech over her former team, Florida, in Game 1 of the Gainesville Super Regional on Friday.
The 11-seed Red Raiders are now one win away from returning to the Women's College World Series. They face the 6-seed Gators on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. CT.
Williams powered a Tech offense that produced 12 hits. Her go-ahead homer allowed Texas Tech to fight back after blowing a six-run lead late in the game.
Kaitlyn Terry got the start in the circle for the Red Raiders and allowed five runs in 5.0 innings of work, with much of that damage coming in the fourth and fifth frames. At the plate, the Red Raiders were led by Lauren Allred's three hits and four runs driven in, Williams' two hits and three RBI, and a pair of hits by Lagi Quiroga, including a home run.
The Red Raiders improved to 56-6 on the year while the Gators fell to 51-11.
Terry lost a long battle to the leadoff hitter, and after an 11-pitch at-bat ended in a walk, the runner would come around to score the game's first run off an RBI single by Kendall Grover in the bottom of the first inning.
Both teams flashed the leather on defense to throw up zeros, then the Red Raiders offense came alive in the bottom of the fourth inning to give Texas Tech its first lead.
After Tech started the day batting 0-9 with runners on base and leaving four runners on base, shortstop Hailey Toney singled in a run. Then, the Red Raiders added two more in the inning with Lagi Quiroga and Mia Williams getting two-out hits to the left side to put Tech up 3-1 against starting pitcher Keagan Rothrock.
The Red Raiders kept up their timing at the plate with back-to-back hits in the fifth inning that led to a three-run home run by Lauren Allred, who built on her legendary comeback grand slam in the regional to cement herself as a postseason hero in the scarlet and black.
Quiroga matched Allred with a bomb over the left field scoreboard two batters later to put Texas Tech up 7-1.
Then the Gators stormed back on their home turf.
With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, a Williams error proved critical as Florida sent back-to-back homers over the fence: a two-run shot by Ava Brown and a Townsen Thomas opposite-field jack on the next pitch to cut the deficit to 7-4 for Florida.
The sixth inning began with a single by Jazzy Burns and Taylor Pannell getting hit by a pitch. The Red Raiders delivered again with two outs, and guess who. Allred poked a single the other way to stretch the lead to 8-4.
Florida responded again off Terry, with Madison Walker homering to left. That brought reigning national pitcher of the year NiJaree Canady out of the Texas Tech bullpen to try to shut the door, leading 8-5.
The Gators didn't let the pitching change knock them off rhythm. Florida brought the tying run to the plate as power hitter Taylor Schumaker stepped up with two on and no out. Canady managed two strikeouts, but Brown hit her second home run of the game to tie it up at eight apiece.
Burns walked, and Williams - who returned to Gainesville after transferring from Florida to Texas Tech last offseason - hit her program-record 23rd home run of the season to put the Red Raiders up 10-8.
Florida got the leadoff runner aboard in the bottom of the seventh with a single down the line. Canady got her third strikeout of the outing, induced a flyout, and got an infield pop-up to earn the victory.
Another record-breaking Texas Tech softball season continues on enemy territory on May 23 as the Red Raiders look to book their ticket back to OKC.
