Stanford falls to Texas in Women’s College World Series

OKLAHOMA CITY — NiJaree Canady appeared well on her way to replicating the back-to-back shutouts that helped No. 8 seed Stanford reach the Women’s College World Series for the second straight year.

Canady set down the first six Texas batters she faced Thursday night at Devon Park, including three by strikeout. Heavy-hitting Reese Atwood and her NCAA-leading 90 RBI was among them, swinging through a high fastball.

But the top-seeded Longhorns broke through in the third inning, scoring twice with the help of two bunts and an infield single, then added two more runs in the sixth to win 4-0 and send Stanford to its first loss of bracket play.

Texas pitcher Teagan Kavan held the light-hitting Cardinal to a first inning single by catcher Ava Gall and struck out eight to earn the complete-game victory.

The Cardinal (48-16) play either Oklahoma State or Florida on Friday at 6:30 p.m.. A loss will end Stanford’s season.

“Not the result we wanted,” Stanford coach Jessica Allister said postgame. “Not necessarily the game that we wanted to play. Credit to Texas. I thought they did a really good job of stringing hits together and executing offensively. We can be better. The good news is we get to play again tomorrow. We will be (better) tomorrow. Looking forward to getting back out on the field and playing Stanford softball.”

Canady (22-6) allowed five hits and struck out six, two days after being picked by USA Softball as its national player of the year.

“Yeah, this is not my best game,” she said. “Too many walks, too many wild pitches. Just looking to get better tomorrow.”

Early on she looked like the pitcher that limited LSU to five hits and no runs in two super regional wins last week.

Texas (53-8) got its first baserunner in the third inning on a bunt single by centerfielder Kayden Henry, who took second on a wild pitch and third on a sacrifice bunt by Alyssa Washington.

Henry scored on an infield single by Bella Dayton, and the Longhorns added another run on a single to right field by Mia Scott. Dayton tried to score but tagged out at home plate. Texas challenged the call, which was overturned, making it 2-0.

Stanford threatened in the fifth, putting runners on first and second with one out. But Kavan struck out Taryn Kern on a check swing and got Kyra Chan to ground out to end the inning.

The Cardinal has now scored five runs in its last five College World Series games, spanning back to last season.

“I think we went the wrong direction today offensively, Allister said. “I thought we came out and I thought the first maybe three innings we had really good at-bats, putting good pressure on the defense, getting good barrel to the ball, doing a pretty good job. Instead of getting more comfortable as we got more at-bats, we got tighter and we started guessing, we got sped up. When you’re facing somebody who is throwing the ball up and out of the zone, then pulling the string, when you do that, it’s going to make for a long day.”

Texas loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth off Canady and two runners came around to score on a single to right field by Henry.

“We knew it was going to be a tough matchup,” Texas coach Mike White said. “She is as tough as they come. Obviously it was good to get out there and get a couple of runs up, being able to get those extra runs in the last innings.

Stanford split a pair of nonconference games with Texas this season, winning 4-3 when Canady took the mound and losing 9-2 with Canady on the bench.

In that win, Canady threw all eight innings, allowing six hits, two walks and two earned runs while striking out 11.

Canady, a sophomore, was picked this week by USA Softball as its National Player of the Year over Atwood and Oklahoma State pitcher Lexi Kilfoyl after leading the nation in strikeouts (310) and ERA (0.65).

Atwood, the Longhorns slugger, entered the day two RBI behind Oklahoma’s Tiare Jennings’ Big 12 single-season record of 92, which was set in 2021.