Texas Tech punched its ticket to the Women’s College World Series championship round in exciting style after its million-dollar ace NiJaree Canady lost her complete-game shutout bid when Oklahoma — down to its last strike — hit a game-tying, two-run blast in the top of the seventh.
Red Raiders infielder Lauren Allred hit a sacrifice fly to right field in the bottom of the seventh to score outfielder Mihyia Davis, who easily beat a wide throw to the plate for a 3-2 win in Oklahoma City on Monday.
The game was one of the most anticipated of the year, with the two-time NFCA Pitcher of the Year Canady on the hill against Oklahoma, which had won the Women’s College World Series the past four years.
Canady has been one of the most dominant pitchers in Division I college softball and she continued that stretch in Monday’s game against the Sooners.
Canady pitched all seven innings of Monday’s semifinal game, allowing two runs on five hits and striking out eight of the 28 batters she faced.
The Red Raiders starter didn’t allow a hit until the middle of the second inning.
Texas Tech took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second and remained in the lead until the seventh, when Canady found herself with a runner on and two outs with Abigale Dayton at the plate.
Dayton hit a blast to right field to tie the game at two, setting the stage for the Red Raiders heroics in the bottom half of the seventh.
Monday’s win marks the first time in program history that Texas Tech will play for a softball national championship and it comes in Gerry Glasco’s first year as head coach for the Red Raiders.
Prior to Monday’s game, Canady led all DI softball players in victories with 32 and in ERA with 0.86.
She transferred to Texas Tech after spending last season with Stanford and signed a whopping $1 million NIL deal with Texas Tech’s NIL collective, the Matador Club.
Canady had helped lead Stanford to two consecutive World Series before transferring to Texas Tech.
