Oklahoma hadn’t been shutout in six years. They hadn’t been eliminated from the Women’s College World Series (WCWS) since 2019. But the million-dollar maiden of Texas Tech, NiJaree Canady — the first woman to make a million dollars in NIL money playing college softball — had a dynastic death dialed up.
Canady allowed just four hits and a walk and had seven strikeouts until Oklahoma’s nine-hole hitter with two dingers all season blasted an 0-2 pitch into the right field bleachers to tie the game with two outs in the top of the seventh.
The Red Raiders bailed out their superstar in the circle with a run in the bottom half of the inning to move onto the all-Texas WCWS championship round. My biggest complaint wasn’t that Canady blew it in the big moment, but that she was batting, reportedly because that was part of the recruiting process by Texas Tech head coach Gerry Glasco. It’s starting to bite him in the ass.
During her first at-bat of the championship series, with the bases loaded, I had the thought that I wouldn’t let Canady hit in this series. She proceeded to ground into a double play, and the Aggies scored zero runs despite a runner at third with no one out.
In fact, the only run the Red Raiders plated was due to a bad rule, as runner’s interference was challenged on a steal attempt of second base by Tech that wasn’t even close. The runner had started her slide before the ball arrived and had a clear path to the bag because that’s where her foot ended up after the tag was applied. If the interference doesn’t impact the result of the play, it shouldn’t be reviewable. The base went to the runner, though, and the runner ultimately scored.
Canady then struck out leading off the fourth inning. She grounded out in her third at-bat. But her biggest mistakes came in the circle, as she attempted to intentionally walk someone and threw what appeared to be two pitches up in the strike zone. I would have swung at both of them. When the fourth pitch went to the same spot, Reese Atwood put it on the ground to left field to give Texas its first lead, 2-1, in the sixth.
That makes it two consecutive games Canady made big pitching mistakes in big moments. The rest of the Red Raiders bailed her out the first time, but couldn’t the second. They couldn’t bail her out because they couldn’t score of Longhorns’ ace Teagan Kavan.
Canady needs to take a seat when she’s not in the circle because she’s a double play waiting to happen and isn’t likely to slug off these Texas pitchers. Raegan Jennings was Texas Tech’s best hitter this season. She hit .393. She got one at-bat as a pinch hitter. Logan Halleman had just one at-bat despite hitting .360 this season. That’s fourth-best on the team.
Canady needs runs if she’s going to play it fast and loose in the circle, and she’s not as likely to get those runs without baserunners, and she’s limiting her team’s ability to put runners on base by being in the lineup. I’d love for her to make me eat my words, but this Texas pitching staff ain’t the staffs she’s preyed on all season en route to a 1.121 OPS despite a .297 batting average. She has a beautiful swing, but Texas Tech doesn’t need a slugger in this series. They need all the hitters they can get.
