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NiJaree Canady Transferring to -- of All Places -- Texas Tech

NiJaree Canady, whose sub-1.00 ERA helped lead Stanford to the Women's College World Series in both her years with the Cardinal, announced on July 24 that she is transferring to Texas Tech. I've lived in Lubbock for 27 years and can say that the town has been improving with a greater selection of restaurants and shops, and a new downtown performing arts center. Likewise, nice new facilities have been dotting the Texas Tech campus . Still, it seems unlikely that Canady would have become a Red Raider without the $1 million annual Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deal for her, made possible by the donation of a Texas Tech alumni couple. So stunning an event is this, even in the ever-changing world of collegiate athletics, that the New York Times  even ran a behind-the-scenes story on Canady's path to Texas Tech. I look forward to being in the stands to watch Canady pitch next spring, an opportunity I never expected to have.
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Pitching Star NiJaree Canady Reportedly in the Transfer Portal

Stanford pitching ace NiJaree Canady has reportedly entered the transfer portal ( link ), having completed two seasons in the circle for the Cardinal. Stanford has made the WCWS in both of Canady's seasons on the team. Another school hit hard by the transfer portal is the University of Washington, with an exodus of eight Huskies . This list of the top ten players in the portal includes four from UW. Today is the final day of the 30-day window for players to enter the portal.

ESPN.com Feature on the Five "Core" Oklahoma Seniors

Jayda Coleman, Tiare Jennings, Kinzie Hansen, Rylie Boone , and Nicole May. ESPN.com refers to them as Oklahoma's "core" seniors in a nice  retrospective  profile the day after the Sooners won their fourth Women's College World Series in a row and eighth in program history.* These five were not the only seniors on the team, but are distinguished by playing their entire college careers with OU. Other key seniors, such as Kelly Maxwell and Alyssa Brito, were transfers from other schools. The hitters among the core five -- Coleman, Jennings, Hansen, and Boone -- all put up gaudy offensive statistics and were the foundation that gave OU, in ESPN's apt characterization, "a lineup that had no easy outs." May, though not serving as the Sooners' pitching ace (think Jordy Bahl or Maxwell over the years), appeared in 106 games and compiled a 2.22 ERA. Whether OU's title streak ends anytime soon is anybody's guess. Even with Oklahoma's proven abilit

2024 WCWS -- Finals Game 2

We likely are three outs away from the end of the college softball season, with Texas batting in the top of the seventh, trailing Oklahoma 8-4... Pop to shallow left for first out... K for second out... Ground-out to third gives Sooners their fourth straight WCWS national title... Whereas the Longhorns scored single runs tonight in the second, third, fourth, and sixth innings, OU was coming up with multiple-run innings in the second (2 runs), fourth (3), and sixth (3). Cydney Sanders's bases-clearing double with three aboard in the fourth is but one example of the Sooners' big plays, in this case converting a 3-2 UT lead into a 5-3 OU advantage.  The Sooners showed some vulnerability this season, including an elimination game in the WCWS semifinals in which OU trailed Florida 5-2 . In the championship round, however, Oklahoma raised its game to a new level, which Texas couldn't come close to matching.

2024 WCWS -- Finals Game 1

Oklahoma off to a 5-1 lead, as Texas bats in B3. Longhorns with runners on first and second with two out and star hitter Reese Atwood at the plate... Atwood grounds right back to OU pitcher Kelly Maxwell, who tosses to first for the third out... UT starter Teagan Kavan, who pitched so well against Stanford in the semifinals, lasted only 2 2/3 innings tonight, allowing all five Oklahoma runs... 8-3 OU is your final...

2024 WCWS -- Day 6

Oklahoma has kept its quest for a fourth straight WCWS title alive with a 6-5 eight-inning win over Florida to advance to the championship round. The Sooners will take on Texas in a two-out-of-three series beginning Wednesday night. Florida held a 5-2 lead after three innings and looked well on its way to beating OU for the second straight day, which would have eliminated the Sooners and taken the Gators to the final round. However, UF scored no further runs, whereas Oklahoma chipped away with two in the fourth, one in the sixth, and one in the eighth. The final run came via Jayda Coleman's opposite-field walk-off home run to lead off the bottom of the eighth.  Sooner starter Kelly Maxwell went the distance, allowing only four hits. Three of those hits were home runs within the first three innings; the only other Gator hit was an infield single in the top of the sixth. Maxwell also walked five and struck out eight. Florida starter Keagan Rothrock also went the distance, allowing 1

2024 WCWS -- Day 5

Texas and Stanford are scoreless B3 (with the Cardinal as the home team), as the Longhorns -- with no losses in the WCWS -- try to advance directly to the championship round. The one-loss Cardinal would need to beat Texas tonight and tomorrow to make the finals... UT center-fielder Kayden Henry with a great catch on Stanford's leadoff hitter. Nothing for the Cardinal in B3... Longhorns' Katie Stewart with a one-out double to the wall in right-center T4... Two-out HBP gives Texas two runners on base... NiJaree Canady strikes out UT hitter to end the threat... T6, still scoreless in this pitcher's duel between Canady and UT's Teagan Kavan... One-out single for Longhorns' Reese Atwood... K for second out... UT pinch-runner Adayah Wallace steals second and advances to third on overthrow into center-field...  Grounder to second ends the threat... B6, Stanford comes up, having gotten only one hit so far (to UT's four)... Cardinal goes quietly, the third out coming on