Texas Tech beat Florida 16-7 in Game 3 of the Gainesville Super Regional, a win that sent the Red Raiders back to the Women’s College World Series.
It was a night that turned on offense and interruption: the game was stopped for a 2-1/2 hour lightning delay and resumed about 1:50 p.m., and when play restarted Texas Tech’s lineup took over. The Red Raiders combined five home runs — two from Jackie Lis, two from Taylor Pannell and one from Mia Williams — and built a lead that reached run-rule territory by the fifth inning.
Mia Williams, who finished with a home run in Game 3, was also hit by a pitch during the three-game series — her fifth such plate appearance to be hit — a small, abrasive detail that underscored how much contact and chaos marked the weekend. For Williams the series ended with a moment she could carry: a long ball that added insurance to a game that had swung wildly back and forth.
The scoring swung early. Texas Tech opened 3-0, then Florida answered with four runs in the bottom of the second to seize control. After the delay, Texas Tech retook the lead and built a 7-4 edge, only to see Florida knot the score at 7-7 when Ava Brown launched a three-run homer. From there Texas Tech surged away — an eight-run outburst put the game at 16-7 going into the bottom of the fifth and effectively closed out the deciding game.
Taylor Pannell’s night stood out: she hit two home runs, the second of which made it the first multi-home-run game of her career. Jackie Lis matched that production with two homers of her own, and the combined power overshadowed a pitching carousel on both sides. Keagan Rothrock was lifted after Pannell’s top-of-the-third homer, and Texas Tech leaned on a planned substitution pattern that mixed NiJaree Canady and Kaitlyn Terry in relief work as the game moved toward its early finish.
Florida’s night turned more chaotic as the margin widened: head coach Tim Walton was ejected in the bottom of the fifth inning, a flashpoint amid a swinging contest that already had the weather delay and several pitching changes woven into it. The ejection punctuated a game in which momentum snapped almost as often as the scoreboard lit up.
The result capped a three-game series that had been traded back and forth — Texas Tech won Game 1 by a 10-8 score, Florida answered with a 10-2 Game 2 victory, and the winner-take-all Game 3 produced the decisive 16-7 score. For Texas Tech, the offensive depth that produced five home runs in the finale carried the team to Oklahoma City; for Florida, the blowout ended a bid that had shown its own late resilience, including Brown’s tying shot.
There is a clear conclusion from what happened in Gainesville: Texas Tech’s offense was too volatile and too powerful for Florida to contain on a day of interruptions and lineup adjustments. The Red Raiders leave with a series win built on timely homers and a bullpen approach that rotated Canady and Terry to close the gaps created by long rallies. For Mia Williams and her teammates, the win restores the trip to the Women’s College World Series and sends a team that can hit through delay and disorder to Oklahoma City.
