WCWS Championship Series: Botched Intentional Walk Gives Texas Softball Game 1 Win

Credit: Texas Athletics

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON www.si.com/onsi/softball

To no one’s surprise, Game 1 of the Women's College World Series Championship Series began in a pitcher’s duel between Texas’s Tegan Kavan and Texas Tech’s Nijaree Canady.

But between an obscene obstruction call and Reese Atwood swinging at a pitch that was meant to intentionally walk her, Texas came out on top 2-1 in one crazy matchup. 

The bats were otherwise silent through the fifth inning until the obstruction rule crept in to change the entire pace of the game. 

After Logan Hallerman reached from a fielding error by Texas second baseman Kaydee Bennett, she stole second, and Atwood threw down to Leighann Goode for a clear out. Texas Tech head coach Gerry Glasco challenged the play for obstruction, and the call came back saying that Goode’s left foot was in the baseline when she applied the tag, awarding Hallerman a second life. 

With one out instead of two, Mihyia Davis took advantage of having a runner on and sent an RBI single to center field allowing Hallerman to score.

After this call put Texas Tech ahead, it was hard to kill their momentum.

But with two outs in the sixth with two runners on, the Red Raiders decided to walk

Atwood to load the bases. In the attempt to walk the Longhorns' best hitter, Canady lobbed a perfect pitch to Atwood, allowing her to single through the left side.

Atwood’s first hit of the World Series ended up being an RBI that scored two and took the lead.

“The first pitch, I think (NiJaree) kind of left a little,” Atwood said in the post-game press conference. “After that, I was looking for something just a little bit. The game was really tight, and I knew I was going to have to take a risk to try and do something for my team. I've had intentional walks, but I've never had one that was actually over the plate a little bit."

Kavan managed to halt the Red Raiders and finished the complete game with three strikeouts.

The Longhorns stay undefeated and are one win away from winning a national title. The Lone Star State matchup continues on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.