Texas Tech Stuns Ole Miss in Greatest Comeback in NCAA Tournament History
The game felt over. Then it became history.
“That’s one of the most clutch… the way they came back over and over with two outs, two outs, two outs,” Texas Tech head coach Gerry Glasco said after his team pulled off the largest comeback in NCAA Tournament history in a 10-9 win over Ole Miss on Saturday. “That seventh inning was so special.”
A lot happened before that moment. Ole Miss opened the game with a leadoff home run. A pinch-hit three-run blast later pushed the Rebels further in front. Texas Tech managed little offensively for most of the afternoon as Ole Miss carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning.
But no story is over until the final page. No game is over until the final out… and it turns out the Red Raiders had a lot left to say.
Tech walked into the bottom of the seventh inning staring at an 8-0 deficit and what looked like a brutal road ahead in the NCAA Tournament. Lose there and suddenly the Red Raiders would need to win three games in roughly 24 hours to survive.
Yet somehow, when the game needed a hero, everyone inside Tracy Sellers Field seemed to know who it was going to be.
Lauren Allred.
The same Lauren Allred who built a reputation last postseason for showing up in the biggest moments. The same Lauren Allred whose bat always seems to find the center of the story when games get tight.
For six and a half innings Ole Miss had sucked the life out of Tracy Sellers Field.
Raider Power chants rolled through the stadium as Allred stepped into the box to lead off the seventh, down 8-0 at the time.
“The first at-bat, I actually did not hear them,” Allred said. “I was a little more locked in, like okay, do this for my team.”
It worked. Single. Only the third hit of the game at the time for Tech.
“So we’re down by eight runs, and I know that first at-bat, I couldn’t go wrong because I can’t win the game in that one at-bat,” Allred said on her mindset to start the inning off. “Just trying to make sure I get on for the team.”
But then two more outs quickly followed.
Still down seven.
Still dire.
Not over yet though said Kaitlyn Terry who lined an RBI single through the right side with two outs to finally get Tech on the board. At the time it almost felt like one of those “well at least we aren’t getting shut out” moments.
Then Jackie Lis followed with a two-run homer. 8-3 Ole Miss. Terry threw her hands in the air rounding second as if Lis had just tied it though. If there was any question as to if the team believed, she seemed to know what was about to happen. The dam broke.
Jasmyn Burns singled.
Mia Williams singled.
Taylor Pannell singled.
Desirae Spearman walked.
“Everybody else started getting hits with two outs and I was like, ‘Okay, we got a rally going. We’re playing for each other now,’” Allred said. “You could really see everybody come together in the dugout and the energy’s just electric at this point.”
Even Lagi Quiroga — who had not played before this weekend since March — stepped in and delivered a key walk later in the inning.
Nearly everyone touched the comeback.
“Everybody played… Lagi, Jazzy, Vic, Lauren,” Glasco said. “A lot of people got to contribute and I just couldn’t be prouder of my team.”
Then Allred came up to hit for the second time in the inning. Now with the bases loaded. Now as the tying run.
Now with everybody inside Tracy Sellers Field feeling the same thing. ‘It’s Lauren Allred time.’ Everyone stood, chanting Raider Power almost as if they knew what was coming.
You could feel it, the tension in the air.
Meanwhile, Allred felt the opposite.
“I felt so calm and at peace in that at-bat,” Allred said. “I just knew I had to get inside the ball and good things will happen.”
First pitch.
Gone.
Grand slam.
Tie game.
Pandemonium.
Even Glasco admitted afterward he felt it coming.
“She’s always been a clutch hitter,” Glasco said. “I felt really good when we got to her. I just had a feeling it was going to happen at that point. I think our whole team did, to be honest.”
For Allred, though, she wasn’t about to make it about herself.
After being asked what allows her to keep showing up in moments like these, her answer sounded a lot like the rally itself.
“I don’t think it’s just me,” Allred said. “I think it’s the people around me on the team, setting the moments up and allowing me to be in the position that I get in whenever it comes.”
That was the end of the story right? Texas Tech of course walked it off right after Allred tied it? No. Ole Miss answered immediately in the eighth with a run to retake a 9-8 lead.
But after coming back from eight down, one run suddenly felt small.
Mia Williams called this team a bunch of daWgs earlier this week. Saturday looked like proof.
Kaitlyn Terry and Jackie Lis immediately worked back-to-back walks. Burns followed with an RBI single to tie the game.
Then Williams herself came up. Her fly ball never left the yard, but it may have been one of the most important swings of the afternoon, moving Lis to third and putting the winning run just 60 feet away with less than two outs.
“Oh yeah, I thought it was gone,” Glasco said of Williams at-bat. “I thought that was a home run.”
Instead it set up one final moment.
One final player writing what Texas Tech hopes is the first of many postseason memories in a Red Raider uniform.
Taylor Pannell.
“I had the easiest job,” Pannell said. “My teammates in front of me set me up pretty well… all I had to do was score a runner 60 feet.”
Pannell lifted a sacrifice fly into right field.
Ballgame. Pandemonium. History.
No team since 2000 had ever come back from eight runs down in an NCAA Tournament game.
None. Zilch. Notta.
Teams were 0-640. Now they’re 1-640.
“I think it feels awesome,” Pannell said about the crowds reaction to the comeback. “This team wants to make history just for the program and the school itself.”
One piece of history at a time.
Saturday just happened to be the greatest comeback in NCAA Tournament history. The job, however, is not finished. Texas Tech still needs one more win Sunday to advance to its second straight Super Regional.
“We got a big win today,” Glasco said. “We got one more win to accomplish, and we’re not going to let anything get in our way.”
Photo Gallery: Texas Tech vs. Ole Miss NCAA Regional
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