Softball takes off in the Hub City

Written By Madilyn Coyne

By Timothy Tschoepe, ttschoep@ttu.edu

The growth of collegiate softball has been on an incline for the past 20 years. The usage of NIL and other means has grown the game to its highest it’s been in the history of the sport. 

According to The Athletic, the game of softball has grown 30% in the past ten years. This growth has caused Texas Tech athletics to reward the biggest NIL deal ever to a player and make changes to their facility to enhance the fan experience on gameday. 

In an interview done by the MLB, Natasha Watley voiced her thoughts on the growth of the game.

“I feel like we are starting to reach new heights,” Watley said. “I feel like we are on the brink of a thriving pro league.”

Across the landscape, the heavyweight teams such as Oklahoma and Texas have made major renovations to their stadiums and have gone all-in with the mindset of growing the game and being competitive in sport. Both moves have made the teams more attractive to recruits and allowed them to go into the South-Eastern Conference with some of the best softball facilities in the conference.

Oklahoma, arguably the best softball program ever, started the trend of outfield seating when they announced the addition back in 2021. These renovations included a new training facility, a 30,000 square-foot increase overall to the stadium and an increased capacity that can hold 4,200 people and another 2,000 in standing room.

In an interview done with MLB, Jenny Finch said that if teams play at a high caliber, it will bring attention and grow the game. She added that they would like equal opportunities as the boys. 

“You can only control what you can control,” Finch said, “You ball out… you go be the best that you can be.”

Both Oklahoma and Texas left the Big 12 in 2024 and this opened the door for new schools that wanted to compete in the sport. To do so, Texas Tech decided to go all-in for collegiate softball.

The efforts started when the team let Head Coach Craig Snider leave to become the hitting coach at Tennessee. The fallout would lead to the hiring of Gerry Glasco, who was previously the head coach of the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns. Glasco built that program into a top-25 team in the nation in his seven-year stint in Louisiana. 

Several transfers from his previous school then made their way to Lubbock. Players like Alexa Langeliers, Victoria Valdez, Lauren Allred and Chloe Riassetto and Mihyia Davis all hit the transfer portal to dawn the scarlet and black. Glasco was not done there, he recruited the second-best incoming freshman class in the nation to compete alongside his transfer class. Finally, he was able to land the best pitcher in the transfer portal, Nijaree Canady, from Stanford.

Texas Tech athletics going all-in on the game of softball proves that they are ready to compete in the new-look Big 12. The usage of the transfer portal and NIL shows the same. In this season alone, Tech has seen its season attendance record broken. It  has been picked to finish top two in the Big 12 Conference and has been ranked in the top-10 nationally.

Madilyn Coyne
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