Canady pitches a 2-hitter, strikes out 10 as No. 12 seed Texas Tech tops Ole Miss 1-0 in Women’s CWS

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — NiJaree Canady pitched a two-hitter with 10 strikeouts, and No. 12 seed Texas Tech edged unseeded Mississippi 1-0 on Thursday night in the first Women’s College World Series appearance for both teams.

Canady, last year’s USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, led Stanford to the national semifinals two straight years before transferring to Texas Tech. She led the Red Raiders to their first Big 12 regular season and tournament titles.

Canady was dominant against Ole Miss in a game delayed 75 minutes by lightning and rain. She retired the first 16 batters she faced, and struck out the side in the first and seventh innings. She blew a fastball by Rebels’ slugger Lexi Brady for the game’s final out.

“You just know when the game starts, she’s a competitor,” Texas Tech coach Gerry Glasco said. “You have been around athletes enough, no matter what sport, you just run across people that can turn it up at game time. And she’s that player.”

Texas Tech (51-12) will play UCLA — a 4-2 winner over Oregon — on Saturday for a spot in the semifinals. Ole Miss (42-20) will face Oregon in Friday’s elimination game.

For the first time in her three seasons at the World Series, Canady won’t have to work her way through the loser’s bracket.

“It was definitely a goal of mine just to come back, have a day off tomorrow,” she said. “So definitely huge. To be able to give this team a rest I feel like is going to be really good.”

Angelina DeLeon ended Canady’s run with a sixth-inning single up the middle and moved to second on an infield single by Taylor Malvin. But Canady struck out Jaden Pone looking and got Lair Beautae to foul out to third.

Texas Tech’s Lauren Allred got the game’s first hit in the fourth inning, singling inside the third base line off the Rebels’ Aliyah Binford. Allred scored on a double by Alana Johnson and a throwing error by the left fielder to give Canady all the run support she needed.

Binford allowed four hits and did not give up an earned run.

“I thought Aliyah did an incredible job in the circle,” Ole Miss coach Jamie Trachsel said. “Got our defense involved right away, especially sometimes that helps, just moving around in the big environment for the first time being out here. Had some big pitches in big moments.

“And obviously Nija is tough. She’s done that to a lot of people. She’ll probably continue to do that. She’ll do that to some other teams here.”

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

By TIM WILLERT
Associated Press