The Women’s College World Series (WCWS) finals will be without Oklahoma for the first time since 2018, and will not win a fifth consecutive national championship. Texas Tech, the twelve-seed that famously lured National Fastball Coaches Association Pitcher of the Year NiJaree Canady away from Stanford with a $1 million NIL deal, beat the Sooners to advance to the program’s first WCWS final.

They will play Texas, a program knocking on the door for years.

It will also be the first intrastate matchup in the WCWS championships since 2004, when UCLA defeated California.

In anticipation of the first of the best-of-three WCWS championship games, which kicks off on Wednesday, June 3 at 7:00 pm ET, here’s what you need to know:

How did Texas make it here?

For starters, it’s no surprise that Texas made it to the WCWS championships series, even as the six-seed. The Longhorns have been in two of the last three finals, losing to the dynastic Oklahoma Sooners both times. Texas advanced to the final game after defeating Tennessee, 2-0, in the semifinals.

Tennessee rode the high of defeating UCLA in dramatic fashion, but failed to get its bats going against Texas. Plus, the ejection of hitting coach Craig Snider during the top of the fourth did them no favors.

Snider’s antics may have, unintentionally, fueled some energy for their rivals. The Longhorns, who had also been hitless up to that point, started to make contact at the plate. Once they managed a 2-0 lead, Texas sent in their star pitcher, Teagan Kavan, who secured the win for her team just hours after learning that her grandmother had passed away. Her empowering performance ultimately helped Texas punch its ticket to another final.

How did Texas Tech make it here?

Pretty simple - NiJaree Canady. That’s not to say that other members of the squad don’t matter - this is a team sport, after all! But Canady’s pitching is otherworldly. The standout pitcher has a microscopic Earned Run Average of 0.81 and has already thrown 300 pitches in the WCWS.

Texas Tech advanced over Oklahoma in the most dramatic-possible fashion. Canady handled her competition for most of the game, as her Red Raiders led the Sooners, but late in the game, Oklahoma’s Abigale Dayton hit a two-run home run to tie the game.

With just a half inning to go, Lauren Allred came to the plate in the bottom of the seventh for Texas Tech with runners on base and hit a sacrifice fly to win the game, walk-off style. This defeat proved a season-long experiment for Texas Tech to be true - building a full roster does matter, but relying on a star pitcher to bring your team to the top was the best decision the Red Raiders could have made this year.

With this loss, Oklahoma will miss out on the WCWS championship game for the first time in seven years.

How can Texas win it all?

This is going to be a pitcher’s battle. Teagan Kavan’s emotional performance on Saturday was enough to send the Longhorns straight through to the finals. If Kavan’s stuff stays strong, the Longhorns will have a solid chance. Also, they can rely on experience that their opponents don’t have - this is their third appearance in the WCWS championship in four years, after all. This is Texas Tech’s first. If someone’s buckling under the pressure, it’s not the veterans.

How can Texas Tech win it all?

It almost goes without saying at this point. Can anyone beat Canady? Although Canady and Texas Tech did lose to Texas 2-1 earlier this year, that game was lost on an error. It was a solid one for Canady, and she’s only gotten better since then.