STANFORD – Sophomore NiJaree Canady bolstered her credentials as college softball’s top pitcher, pitching a second straight shutout while facing elimination to once again lead No. 8 Stanford to Women’s College World Series.
Canady allowed three hits and a walk in six innings, and Stanford broke through with seven runs in the fifth to beat No. 9 LSU 8-0 in six innings Sunday in the deciding game of the best-of-three Stanford Super Regional at Smith Family Stadium.
The Cardinal (48-14) will face top-seeded Texas on Thursday at 4 p.m. in Oklahoma City.
This will be the fourth WCWS appearance for Stanford, which reached the national semifinals last season behind Canada and also competed in 2001 and 2004 when coach Jessica Allister was the Cardinal’s starting catcher.
Senior Caelen Koch had two doubles and an RBI single against LSU starter Sydney Berzon, and freshman Jade Berry hit a three-run homer on reliever Raelin Chaffin’s first pitch.
Kaitlyn Lim finished the game with a leadoff home run in the sixth inning.
Canady, who leads the NCAA in ERA with 0.67, allowed a career-worst six runs in four innings against the Tigers (44-17) in the series opener Friday night. But she responded with two batters in Stanford’s 3-0 win Saturday and allowed just five baserunners Sunday.
The Tigers loaded the bases with one out in the fifth inning, but left fielder Kyra Chen caught a fly ball and threw out an LSU runner scoring from the third inning to end the inning.
The Cardinal exploded in the bottom half of the inning.
River Mahler led off with a triple and scored on a grounder to give Stanford the lead. The Cardinal saw two runners thrown out at the plate in the inning, but RBI singles from Ava Gall, Aly Kaneshiro and Koch increased the lead.
It was more than enough support for Canada, who improved to 23-5 and will now prepare for the No. 1 national team on Thursday.
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