No. 14 Texas Tech run-rules No. 12 Arizona in crucial matchup
Gerry Glasco wasn’t going to take any chances. The Red Raider offense had provided an early lead, and with so much at stake for their hosting resume, he brought NiJaree Canady into the game. The superstar came through in the biggest moment of the game, striking out Dakota Kennedy and inducing a hard groundball from Regan Shockey that Hailey Toney handled for the last out of the inning.
Canady and Texas Tech cruised the rest of the way. Canady threw four shutout innings with three strikeouts as the Red Raiders won 10-1 against No. 12 Arizona. And a perfect situation for Texas Tech, as Canady only threw 60 pitches.
Arizona started lefty Aissa Silva, essentially as an opener to attack the Red Raiders’ left-handed-heavy lineup. However, Texas Tech had the answers. Mihyia Davis led off the game with a homer. Alana Johnson collected the third hit of the inning, an RBI single. Demi Elder lifted a sacfrice fly to right field to bring in another run, but Arizona second baseman Kiki Escobar couldn’t handle the throw leading to the fourth run of the inning.
Texas Tech had similar success against Ryan Maddox. The first two Red Raiders reached in the third inning. Johnson laid down a perfect squeeze bunt to push across another run. Elder hit a two-out double to extend the lead to 6-1. Bailey Lindemuth had a single up the middle that hopped over the glove of the sure-handed Tayler Biehl, making the lead six.
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Texas Tech loaded the bases in the fifth with no outs. Biehl nearly made a diving catch but got the force at second base with a load of confusion. The end result was a fielder’s choice RBI. A pair of Arizona defensive miscues scored two more runs to put the run-rule in effect.
Kennedy and Shockey had a pair of infield hits against Texas Tech starter Chloe Riassetto. The lefty did limit the damage to one run on a Devyn Netz sac-fly. After a leadoff single in the second, that’s when Canady came into the game.
The rubber match will be on ESPN2 at 8:30 pm ET. It seems it will be all hands on deck in the circle, but a Netz and Canady matchup wouldn’t be shocking.
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