The Red Raiders' offense has favored the long ball this season, and the home-run hitting is on a historic pace as Big 12 play heats up.
LUBBOCK, Texas - Texas Tech Softball's stellar pitching duo of NiJaree Canady and Kaitlyn Terry rightfully gets its fair share of admiration, but it has been the offensive power that is turning heads and stacking wins at a notable rate.
After last weekend, where the Red Raiders swept No. 25 UCF on the road, Texas Tech has already surpassed the team's home run total from last year.
Memorably, 2025 was the school’s greatest softball season as Texas Tech reached its first Women's College World Series and was one win away - really, one botched Game 1 finish away - from a national championship.
So, that's already some worthy company, especially with how many games are still left to play this season.
Gerry Glasco made it his mission to attack the last transfer portal cycle with vengeance, and that's led to 63 long balls launched by the Red Raiders in just 32 games. A lot of them come from those big-name newcomers.
That is a 1.96 average per game. Last year, the team hit 60 bombs in 68 games, a 0.88 average.
If the Red Raiders keep this pace, they will approach the 100 mark by the end of the schedule. The all-time record is 161 hit by the Oklahoma Sooners in their national championship run in 2021.
Besides hitting the century mark, the Red Raiders can easily make program history at this pace. The current record for home runs hit in a season is 74 by the 2023 team. Tech needs just 12 more homers to eclipse that total, and it's not unrealistic to expect that to come in the next couple weeks.
Leading the charge this season, as she's done in the circle, too, is Terry. "KT" is hitting a team-best .568 with five homers. She's been as productive and consistent as they come, but her teammates have supplied the bulk of the power, where Tech currently leads the entire Big 12 in home runs, hits, runs, RBI, batting average and slugging percentage.
Second baseman Mia Williams leads the team with 11 round-trippers in her first season in Lubbock after transferring in as an All-American at Florida. Not too far behind her is Lagi Quiroga, a Cal transfer who has hit 10 home runs this year.
Canady led the team with 11 homers a year ago. This year, the reigning National Pitcher of the Year has hit just one, a grand slam on Feb. 6 against North Texas.
In 2025, Glasco gave Canady the agency to be in the batting order just as much as she pitched, sometimes resulting in a complete offensive and defensive effort. Obviously her pitching was crucial, but her offensive power was arguably just as valuable on last year's team.
That's not the case in 2026; Canady's squad no longer relies on her developing game at the plate. Texas Tech has 13 players who have hit at least one home run this year, and 10 of them have three or more.
Tech has 19 games remaining in the regular season, and here shortly, we will officially see a program record fall.
By the end of the season, that old mark could be unrecognizable.
The Red Raiders can add to their home-run total when they face Tarleton State in Stephenville for a standalone game on March 24 at 5 p.m. CST.
