NiJaree Canady wills No. 12 Texas Tech softball to first WCWS with upset of No. 5 Florida State
No. 12 Texas Tech upset No. 5 seed Florida State 2-1 on Friday to advance to its first Women's College World Series with star pitcher NiJaree Canady allowing just one run and five hits across the Red Raiders' back-to-back wins in the Tallahassee super regional.
Canady, who made waves last summer in landing college softball's first seven-figure name, image and likeness deal, stifled Florida State, whose hitters went 5-of-49 (.102) in the series. She also hit a home run in Texas Tech's 3-0 win Thursday.
The junior transfer will compete in her third straight WCWS after leading Stanford to the semifinal round in 2023 and 2024.
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN PROGRAM HISTORY, @TexasTechSB IS HEADED TO THE #WCWS! 🎉#RoadToWCWS x 🎥 ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/LIPdm2jBrQ
— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) May 23, 2025
The Red Raiders became the first team to advance out of the super regional round, though No. 11 seed Clemson has a chance to join them later Friday after beating No. 6 seed Texas 7-4 in Game 1 of their series.
Before this season, Texas Tech made just six NCAA tournament appearances and never made it out of the regional round, whereas Florida State had made it at least the super regional 11 straight times, winning a national championship in 2018. But in June 2024, Texas Tech hired Louisiana's Gerry Glasco as its next coach, and a month later landed Canady, the reigning National Player of the Year, thanks in part to an unprecedented deal from boosters at Matador Club, Tech's NIL collective.
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Canady, who's been dubbed the 'Caitlin Clark of softball,' went into Friday's game with a 29-5 record, 0.88 ERA and 276 strikeouts in 198.0 innings pitched. She had a modest three strikeouts in Friday's game but shut out the Seminoles through six innings. Florida State finally threatened in the top of the seventh when Katie Dack led off with a walk and Michaela Edenfield followed with a double. Dack scored on a groundout to shortstop.
But Canady got the last two FSU batters to foul out.
'To be able to do this for the first time in program history, it means everything,' a beaming Canady said after the game on ESPN.
Florida State committed an uncharacteristic four errors Friday, and both of Texas Tech's runs were unearned. Its second run came in the fifth inning after Lauren Allred and Kiley Huffman both reached base on misplayed groundballs in the infield. Pinch runner Alana Johnson scored from second on a Demi Elder single up the middle despite bumping into FSU shortstop Isa Torres on the way to third.
The NCAA super regionals continue through Sunday. The Women's College World Series begins May 29 in Oklahoma City.
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