When looking at the prospect of winning a national championship in 2026, Texas Tech softball head coach Gerry Glasco knew the highest priority was finding another steady pitching arm to take some pressure off of NiJaree Canady.
Kaitlyn Terry became an early target, the UCLA product showing off two-way abilities in leading the Bruins to the Women’s College World Series. But even Glasco had no idea just how well Terry would work out for the Red Raiders this early in the season.
“I guess when you see a great athlete like her come in,” Glasco said, “you’re never totally surprised by the success of great athletes like her. It’s shocking to me that she’s batting over .500. I wouldn’t have expected that.”
Glasco’s reaction is reasonable, considering Terry only had one full year of two-way duties with the Bruins. In the circle, Terry was as solid as anyone in the country, posting a 2.64 ERA with a 20-5 overall record. Her hitting, meanwhile, was spotty, hitting for a .257 average with 24 RBI.
Having a hitting guru like Glasco has paid dividends. Terry, who has the first two no-hitters of her collegiate career already this season, has been as dynamic at the plate as she has in the circle.
As the Red Raiders open Big 12 Conference play this weekend against Houston, Terry holds the sixth-highest batting average in the country (.560) and already has more doubles (8) in 50 plate appearances than she had in 136 at-bats last season at UCLA.
Pairing Terry’s hot bat with her 9-0 pitching record with a 1.33 ERA, Glasco’s surprise at the early returns can partly be attributed to himself.
“I already see a difference just from last year,” Terry said. “I was very open and he just brought in and he fixed a lot of stuff.”
Terry (who earned Big 12 player of the week) first began playing softball around the age of 4, following in the footsteps of her mom, Kristy, who played four years at Florida State and was named the 1995 ACC freshman of the year. Kristy was a catcher while her daughter started training as a two-way threat around middle school, playing shortstop when she wasn’t pitching.
“When I’m not pitching,” Terry said, “I love being on the field. It’s just kind of my vibe.”
Kristy and Joe Terry, though, made a decision early on that’s paved the way for their daughter’s collegiate success. A natural-born righty, Terry started training to be a lefty for softball purposes when she was 12. The idea was to give Terry all the tools to be a successful hitter, including slap-hitting (like her mom) and bunting.
Going to FSU, Terry said, was an option during her high school recruitment, though she never gave it serious consideration.
“Obviously I wanted to follow my mom’s footsteps,” Terry said. “They were part of the recruiting process, but I knew I didn’t want to go there.”
Instead, she headed to Los Angeles to play for the Bruins, where she won the Pac-12 freshman of the year, 19 years after her mom did the same on the opposite side of the country.
Terry has ambitions for life outside of softball. She and her dad would spend weekends when she wasn’t playing games partaking in archery or going hunting. Each season, Terry has two walk-up songs, something she’s done since high school. One song that’s stuck with her throughout has been Disturbed’s “Dropping Plates” to honor her father.
“I always had at least one for my dad,” Terry said, “and he was always Disturbed.”
At first her dream job was being a dental hygienist. Then he realized how much schooling that requires. Terry’s since moved her goals to being a private investigator, citing her love of looking deeper into different topics. She frequently binges on crime shows, especially “S.W.A.T.”
Dissecting the situation is part of a pitcher’s job, and was a factor in Terry’s decision to join the Red Raiders. Of Texas Tech’s top-ranked transfer class, six of the seven players (including Terry) had multiple years of eligibility left before the start of the 2026 season. That spoke to Terry for what the Red Raiders were trying to build: not a one-and-done, but something sustainable.
The focus for now, though, is getting the job done in 2026. Texas Tech’s off to a 22-1 start and owns 15 run-rule victories already. For Terry, part of the draw of the team was being paired with someone like Canady, the duo able to feed and build off each other’s successes.
“That was also th ebiggest reason why I wanted to come here, just to have somebody on the pitching staff with me,” Terry said. “Last year I had to do a lot by myself. Just having somebody else that I can also trust out there, I love that.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech softball’s Kaitlyn Terry putting two-way dominance on full display
Reporting by Nathan Giese, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
