Texas Tech softball famous person NiJaree Canady is so good at throwing strikes that it value the Purple Raiders their recreation Wednesday evening.
The Purple Raiders had been simply 4 outs away from securing a victory in Sport 1 of the Ladies’s Faculty World Collection Closing — and Canady was having no points mowing down Texas’ order because the Longhorns nonetheless had a doughnut on the scoreboard within the 1-0 recreation.
Then got here the chaos.
With two runners on, Canady elected to deliberately stroll Texas catcher Reese Atwood. However on what was speculated to be ball 4, Canady left her pitch out over the plate, and Atwood made her pay for it as she knocked in each baserunners and the Longhorns took the lead.
Texas Tech couldn’t strike again within the high of the ultimate inning, and Texas took Sport 1.
The error was a uncommon one for Canady, as she’s broadly thought of the very best pitcher in school softball.
The Kansas native performed her first two collegiate seasons at Stanford, the place she compiled a 41-10 pitching file and posted only a 0.67 ERA. She racked up 555 strikeouts to only 65 walks.
She gained the USA Softball Collegiate Participant of the Yr award final season, PAC-12 Pitcher of the Yr, was a First Workforce All-American, and a two-time PAC-12 First-Teamer.
Canady then elected to surrender the attainable Stanford diploma and obtained a whopping $1 million in NIL from Texas Tech to try to take this system out of the 29-21 gutter it was in a yr in the past.
This season, she led the nation with the one ERA below 1.00 and has guided the Purple Raiders to a 59-13 file as they chase their first-ever nationwide title.
She’s definitely accustomed to throwing strikes, which is what could have been her downfall.
Atwood stated postgame to ESPN’s Holly Rowe that she observed Canady’s first pitch of the at-bat was within the zone — from there, she was looking one other to take a crack at.
“I knew I was gonna have to take a risk to do something for my team,” Atwood stated.
Atwood was hitless all through the WCWS previous to the game-winner, making the intentional stroll resolution and the miscue all of the extra brutal for Canady and Texas Tech.
The groups return to motion Thursday when the Longhorns can have an opportunity to take the best-of-three collection for the championship.
