OKLAHOMA CITY – Texas Tech star pitcher Nijaree Canady has been coping with a left hamstring damage since late February, her coach confirmed Tuesday, a day earlier than the Purple Raiders face Texas within the Ladies’s Faculty World Sequence best-of-three championship collection.
Canady, nonetheless, downplayed the damage. She stated it would not have an effect on her towards the Longhorns, and that the preliminary medical outcomes “stated it was worse than it was.”
Canady, the reigning USA Softball Collegiate Participant of the Yr, who propelled the Purple Raiders to their first WCWS look, has pitched each inning for Texas Tech in Oklahoma Metropolis. She’s the primary participant to throw each pitch within the WCWS for a workforce to succeed in the championship collection since UCLA’s Rachel Garcia in 2019, in keeping with ESPN Analysis.
Canady is 32-5 this 12 months with an 0.86 ERA. After leaving Stanford final offseason, she signed an NIL deal price greater than $1 million to go to Texas Tech.
However Canady’s damage gave the Purple Raiders an early scare. Texas Tech coach Gerry Glasco stated that had the damage been to Canady’s proper hamstring, the Purple Raiders would’ve needed to “shut her down” for a big period of time.
“We had been strolling on pins needles for a couple of month,” stated Glasco, who famous that they eradicated her bullpen classes through the week and her batting follow Glasco stated they needed to scratch her begin towards South Carolina on March 21 towards South Carolina due to the hamstring. Canady pitched the next night time, although.
“To nonetheless have the outcomes that she did confirmed what an incredible competitor and what an incredible expertise she was,” Glasco stated.
The Longhorns and Purple Raiders are each aiming for his or her first softball nationwide championship. Texas handed four-time defending champion Oklahoma its first loss within the WCWS, and the Purple Raiders eradicated the Sooners 3-2 within the remaining inning Monday night time.
The Longhorns twice defeated Canady and Stanford in final 12 months’s WCWS, with Texas ace Teagan Kavan selecting up the victories in each video games to eradicate the Cardinal.
Kavan and Canady are set to sq. off once more in championship opener Wednesday night time.
“Clearly she’s going to carry offenses off fairly a bit and so it is at all times at the back of your thoughts,” Kavan stated. “It is clearly enjoyable, it is a problem and I like when it is a pitchers’ duel. … it is simply to compete on this ambiance and towards one of the best.”