This is what the Women's College World Series is supposed to look like. Texas Tech had UCLA on the ropes in an elimination game, three runs up heading to the bottom of the 7th, and the Bruins refused to go quietly. Down to their final out, UCLA's #15 turned on one and tied the whole thing at 6 with a swing that emptied the home dugout.
UCLA's last-out, game-tying home run after trailing by 3 in the bottom of the 7th.
That was supposed to be the dagger for Texas Tech. Instead it was just the setup. In dugouts and living rooms across the Tech fanbase, the panic move was already in motion — superstition takes over when your season is hanging on a single pitch.
Jason Williams reportedly reaching for the lucky soda after Tech coughed up 3 in the bottom of the 7th.
Then the universe got even weirder. The sprinklers came on mid-elimination game at Devon Park, because of course they did. WCWS chaos is its own genre at this point, and Oklahoma City played the hits.
Outfield sprinklers firing up in the middle of a WCWS elimination game.
Extras is where the storyline got too good to script. Kaitlyn Terry hit .257 for UCLA last season before transferring to Texas Tech, and in the top of the 9th she crushed a go-ahead double against her former team. There is no crueler revenge plot in college softball than the transfer who delivers the dagger in Oklahoma City.
Terry's go-ahead double in the top of the 9th flips the score to 7-6 Texas Tech.
Tech finished the job, the Bruins are done, and Raider Red got the six-shooters out. JWill was reportedly fired up in the building, the lucky soda did its job, and Devon Park got one of those games that lives on the Big 12 highlight reel forever. UCLA's magic was real for one swing. Terry's was the one that stuck.