On Sunday, No. 8 Stanford softball defeated No. 6 UCLA 3-1 in the Women’s College World Series to advance to the semifinals. Stanford sophomore NiJaree Canady (24-6) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a starting role while UCLA freshman Kaitlyn Terry (21-3) was the losing pitcher for the Bruins in starting role.
BOX SCORE: Stanford vs. UCLA-Sunday, June 2nd
VIDEO: Stanford Softball: UCLA Postgame Press Conference | WCWS
“Yeah, just really proud of the entire group and really proud of these women sitting to my right,” Stanford head coach Jessica Allister said after the game. “It was an excellent game of softball. Great seven innings. I thought NiJa was absolutely phenomenal and then obviously Ava and Taryn putting good swings on good pitches and coming back from a deficit. Getting the third run was really really important and really bouncing back after having a tough series against UCLA at our place in the regular season and coming out and competing the way we competed today. That’s a good team and I couldn’t be prouder of the way we competed today. So, just really proud.”
In the 1st inning, neither team got on the scoreboard. Both Canady and Terry did a good job pitching as they each got three straight batters out, recording two strikeouts each. You could tell this one was going to be a battle.
In the top of the 2nd inning, UCLA was the first team to strike as Megan Grant hit a solo homer to left field in the opening at-bat of the inning. That gave UCLA a 1-0 lead. Canady then got the next three UCLA batters out, putting the clamps down on the Bruins’ lineup. In the bottom of the 2nd, Aly Kaneshrio hit a single to left field for Stanford, but nobody was able to advance her. It remained a 1-0 lead for UCLA at the end of the 2nd inning.
In the top of the 3rd inning, UCLA nearly added to their lead as Janelle Meono hit a single through the left side with one out after which Jadelyn Allchin singled to right field with two outs to advance Meono to third base. Canady then forced a ground out to end the top of the inning, keeping it at 1-0.
In the bottom of the 3rd inning, Stanford was able to add two runs to take the lead. Emily Jones got things going with a single to short stop with no outs. With one out, Taryn Kern hit a double to left center on a 2-2 count to bring home Jones, tying up the game. At this point, Terry’s day was done pitching for UCLA as Taylor Tinsley came in for relief.
“I mean, I feel like that’s one of your dreams as a little kid to play at the World Series to come up in a big moment for your team,” Kern said of her clutch RBI. “Help out NiJa, help out my girls. So, it was awesome.”
With two outs and Tinsley now pitching, Ava Gall hit a single to right field to bring home Kern. That gave Stanford a 2-1 lead. Aly Kaneshrio then grounded out to end the inning. The pitching change did not bring the desired result that UCLA wanted.
“Was there shock? No, I think they’ve been splitting games for a while now and we had a feeling that we’re going to see both pitchers at some point in time,” Allister said of UCLA’s pitching change. “So I thought we were squaring the ball up pretty well. I think maybe four hitters in a row got good barrel to the ball. So, we knew there’d be a change and felt that it was probably coming.”
In the 4th inning, neither team scored as both Canady and Tinsley got three straight batters out. This kept it a 2-1 lead for Stanford at the end of the 4th inning.
In the top of the 5th inning, Canady got three straight batters out again as UCLA was continuing to struggle offensively. Stanford was now looking to see if they could add to their lead and give Canady a bit of a cushion. “She’s incredibly competitive,” Allister said of Canady. “And I think that’s a little bit of her superhuman power. You know, I know she feels like she has a lot of them. But I think maybe the biggest one is just she wants to be in those moments and in those moments she’s not scared. She’s aggressive and assertive and she believes that she can do it.
“And you can see how our team just fuels off that energy and rallies behind her. You can hear even them talking about her. How much they love her. But I think NiJa is a phenomenal teammate, she’s a phenomenal person, and she gets just as excited for her teammates’ successes as her own and you can see just all of that passion come out when she’s on the field.”
In the bottom of the 5th inning, Stanford was able to tack on one more run. Emily Jones hit a single to first base via bunt after which Kaitlyn Lim hit a single via bunt to advance Jones to second base. Taryn Kern then grounded out to first base, advancing both runners. Up next to the plate would be Allie Clements, who flied out to left field to bring home Jones. That made it a 3-1 lead for Stanford. Ava Gall then flied out to center field to end the bottom of the inning.
From there, Stanford would hang on to win 3-1 as neither team scored in the final two innings. In the top of the 7th inning, UCLA had a bit of life as Savannah Pola got hit by a pitch with two outs after which Thessa Malau’ulu hit a single to left center, advancing Pola to second base. Canady needed to get the next batter out to prevent things from really getting frightening for Stanford. To Canady’s credit, she bended but didn’t break as she got the next batter out as Ramsey Suarez grounded out to end the game. 3-1 Stanford pulled out the victory.
With the victory, Stanford advances to the semifinals of the College World Series against No. 1 Texas on Monday, June 3rd. Stanford will need to beat Texas twice in order to advance to the final. Game one will be at 4:00 PM PT on ESPN. Game two will be played approximately 45 minutes after the conclusion of game one if necessary.
To talk strategy for just a minute, Stanford will need to rely on their other pitchers at some point. They can’t have Canady go back-to-back games after pitching on Sunday. What I think they’ll do is have Canady pitch game one to force a game two and then hope for the best in game two with Regan Krause pitching the majority of the game should they get that far. The bats are going to have to deliver the goods and then Krause is going to need to pitch like she did for most of the season. In truth, if Krause is able to pitch like she did in the regular season, Stanford will have a shot. If she pitches like she has in the postseason, they’ll be toast. It’s that simple.
Now, there is a chance Stanford could start Krause in game one and have that be the game they roll the dice. But I think it’s better to start with Canady and then have Krause go up against a more tired Texas team. Of course, all of this talk of a second game will be moot if Stanford doesn’t win game one, which will be no easy task. Texas won their first matchup of the College World Series against Stanford by a final score of 4-0.
Anyways, that’s the deal. Stanford needs to win two games on Monday to advance to the championship series. No matter how they slice it, they gotta rely on a pitcher other than Canady to advance. They won’t be able to pitch Canady both games. Just from a physical standpoint. She’s already exhausted having pitched so much. I look forward to seeing how Stanford manages things and whether or not they’ll be able to pull a rabbit out of their hat.
“Well, this will be the fourth time we’ve played them in four different weekends, so I feel like our scout is pretty good,” Allister said of facing Texas with a chuckle. “I think we got it. We’ll save Coach Nyberg a little bit of time. Yeah, they’re good. They’re good in all three phases of the game. They can pitch, they can hit, they can defend. They’ve got a really deep pitching staff with a lot of different looks. They’ve put together a really deep, competitive ball club. So, there’s a reason that they were the overall number one seed and we’re gonna have to play good softball tomorrow.”
UPDATE: Due to weather, if Stanford wins today, they'll play Texas tomorrow (Tuesday) instead of right after. That's obviously huge as that gives NiJaree Canady the chance to start both games.
CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook & X (Twitter): @StanfordRivals
Ben Parker on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, & X (Twitter): @slamdunk406
Email: slamdunk406@yahoo.com
