After guiding Stanford softball to a second consecutive College World Series appearance, Stanford sophomore pitcher NiJaree Canady has been named the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year along with other First Team All-American awards and honors. Canady has had a phenomenal season and established herself as the top pitcher in the nation.
On the season, Canady has a 22-5 record to go along with a 0.65 ERA and 310 strikeouts. Her 0.65 ERA is the lowest of any pitcher in the country and her 310 strikeouts leads the country as well. She’s simply been dominant and as close to unhittable as you can get.
In the NCAA tournament, she has a 6-2 record and has pitched in six of Stanford’s seven games. Canady was the starting pitcher in all three of Stanford’s Super Regional games against LSU. After dropping game one, Canady came back in full force to guide Stanford to wins in game two and game three. She has been carrying the Cardinal on her back and to the credit of her teammates, they have stepped up enough to get her the run support she has needed. So, it has been a team effort to get to the College World Series even though Canady is without a doubt the star of the team.
After her team felt the wrath of Canady in the regional round, Cal State Fullerton head coach Kelly Ford praised the talent that Canady has and perfectly summed up what she means to the Cardinal.
“Oh, she’s awesome,” Ford said of Canady. “She’s awesome. You know, you could tell about the second half of this game, she said get on my back, ladies and let’s go. She just kicked in. She struck three of us out in one inning and that changed the momentum. She’s fantastic. Yeah. She’s gonna, she’s the one that’s taking them places. So, let’s see. I think they got a good shot of getting to College World Series.”
Stanford senior catcher Aly Kaneshiro loves catching for Canady. She loves the energy Canady brings every time she pitches and her teammates feed off of it.
“NiJa is phenomenal, right?” Kaneshiro said. “Like there’s no doubt about it. It’s so fun getting to catch her. I think my job with NiJa and all our pitchers is just to help out in any way that I can. Help them get calls, help them catch the ball, like literally anything that I can do to make them successful is my goal. And NiJa, her energy is so contagious and it just fires me up all the time so when she stomps I’m screaming and I think like the vice versa…So she absolutely fires me up. She fires up the whole team and it’s so fun to catch her for sure.”
While Canady is putting up big numbers and gaining national attention, she really is motivated by her teammates and doing all she can to help them win. That’s really the source of her passion and pride.
“I don’t think about that at all actually,” Canady said when asked if she feels any pressure being the star player. “I just try to think, honestly every day, every game I just go out and think what can I do best for this team and how can I benefit them. Every time the ball is in my hand I just think let’s get back in the dugout, let’s get back hitting, and then get some runs scored. I’m just taking this as four years to play with my best friends.”
As an extension of that passion for her teammates, Canady is extremely coachable. She is always open to improve her game and take instruction from her coaches.
“Yeah, she’s incredible, she is absolutely incredible,” Stanford head coach Jessica Allister said of Canady. “And I give a lot of credit to her and Coach Nyberg’s relationship. I think they have a really great working relationship and a lot of trust that’s been built up over the last two years and NiJa knows that Coach Nyberg is going to spend whatever time it takes to make sure she’s getting her the information that she needs in guiding her in the right direction and then she really trusts the feedback that she gets. But they work collaboratively really well and I just, I give a lot of credit to their relationship because it’s symbiotic. There’s give and take and when you understand that everybody wants the same things, you’re able to work together, but the two of them are phenomenal together.
“NiJa is, she’s a unicorn. It’s amazing that somebody can be as good as she is and still be grounded in the fact that she should be doing better. That’s her. That’s her superpower in what allows her to continue to perform at the top of the game.”
While it’s obvious that the key to Stanford winning the College World Series is NiJaree Canady, the fact that it’s obvious in and of itself sums why she is so special and why she is so deserving of being named collegiate player of the year. It’ll be fun to see what she does in Oklahoma City and whether or not the Cardinal will bring a national championship back to The Farm.
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