NiJaree Canady has gotten so comfortable at the plate with the Texas Tech softball team, she’s started to perform trick shots with her home runs.
For the second game in as many days in the Lubbock Regional, Canady delivered a crowd-pleasing home run. This one was a two-run shot in the bottom of the fifth inning to make it a 7-1 game. While her solo shot on Friday went nearly 300 feet, her homer on Saturday caused an uproar in the outfield bleachers after Canady’s home run landed safely in the trash can.
“That was a first for me,” Canady said, “so it was definitely exciting.”
Lauren Allred delivered the finishing touches an inning later with a three-run homer, clinching Tech’s 10-1 run-rule win in the sixth inning to send the Red Raiders (47-12) to the regional championship.
Canady’s home run came in the bottom of the fifth after Mississippi State brought Texas Tech’s streak of shutout innings to an end. The Red Raiders held teams scoreless in each of the previous four games and have outscored opponents 42-1 in their last five contests.
In the circle, Canady improved to 27-5 on the season with five innings of work, striking out five and allowing the one run on five hits. Glasco credited Mississippi State for having a good approach against Canady, though it didn’t result in enough offense to keep pace.
Allred finished the game with five RBI after driving in two with a single before her three-run shot. Alana Johnson continued her torrid hitting with a 3-for-3 performance.
Demi Elder, the longest-tenured Red Raider, hit a solo home run in the bottom of the second inning to light a spark in the Rocky Johnson Field crowd.
“Just an unbelievable experience to walk out on the field and be supported by that kind of a crowd and that kind of a program,” head coach Gerry Glasco said. “Just beyond all my expectations and I can’t tell you how appreciative I am.”
Mississippi State survives chaotic elimination game with Washington
The Bulldogs only had a few hours to recover from the loss to Texas Tech before taking on Washington in a win-or-go-home game for both teams.
The high-scoring affair lasted nearly three hours and ended with an 11-10 win for Mississippi State to send Washington home for the summer.
Now Mississippi State will try to rebound once again. The Bulldogs will need to beat Texas Tech twice in order to advance to the Super Regionals while the Red Raiders only need to win once.
That task might be a big harder after ace Raelin Chaffin was dinged for 10 runs and needed 128 pitches to get through 5-2/3 innings against the Huskies.
“The biggest thing,” Mississippi State head coach Samantha Ricketts said, “is seeing how quickly we can recover, which has been a big focus for us all year long. … Raelin,, not her best game, but we have a lot of trust in her. We wouldn’t be in this situation this year without her.”
Huskies hope to build off regional appearance with revamped group
Heather Tarr has been around long enough to have seen just about everything, but returning just four players from last year’s team was certainly an eye-opener.
The Huskies had just four seniors on this year’s team and were led mostly by underclassmen like Alexis DeBoer, Jadyn Glab and Sophi Mazola. Getting into a high-stakes offensive game with Mississippi State is something Tarr hopes can help propel the team forward.
“The best seasons that we’ve ever created have come from situations like this,” Tarr said, “where you get to start the next year right at the end of the year before. I couldn’t say that last year. Our program blew up. We had tough things happen and had people leave the program, which doesn’t happen.
“For these guys to buy in and basically not even blink about it, and now we get to do it again with this group, it’s pretty cool.”
Washington run-rule win eliminates Brown
The Brown softball team hadn’t been to an NCAA regional since 1997, and the Bears’ stay in Lubbock was a short one.
After falling to Texas Tech 6-0 on Friday, the Bears were dealt a 13-5 run-rule loss to Washington in six innings Saturday to be eliminated from the tournament. Brown made the game with the Huskies interesting after getting down 8-0 through two innings. The Bears put up five runs in the top of the third but were unable to get closer.
Washington closed out the game with a three-run sixth inning to end things early.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech softball moves a win away from regional title, gets Mississippi State again
Reporting by Nathan Giese, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
