No. 5 FSU to face Texas Tech, pitching phenom NiJaree Canady in prime time Thursday
When the FSU softball team walked off of JoAnne Graf Field with the NCAA Tallahassee Regional Championship on Sunday afternoon, the only two things the Seminoles knew were they had earned a spot in the Super Regionals and they would be hosting.
Later that day, they learned their opponent for the Supers would be Texas Tech, which cruised through its own home regional. And on Monday, they found out they won’t have to wait long to get back into action.
With a trip to the Women’s College World Series on the line, Texas Tech and FSU will square off this Thursday, Friday and Saturday (if necessary). The Seminoles earned the right to host the Super Regional with a No. 5 national seed going into the postseason.
The Thursday game is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN2, and the Friday game will be at 3 p.m. on ESPN2. If the teams have to play a decisive third game, it will be Saturday at 7 p.m. with television to be determined.
While FSU had to grind out a 4-0 victory over Auburn on Sunday after losing to the Tigers earlier in the day, Texas Tech was not tested very much in its regional. The Red Raiders cruised to easy victories against Brown (6-0) and Mississippi State (10-1) in the first two rounds before pulling away for a 9-6 victory over the Bulldogs in the finals.
Texas Tech is 48-12 on the season and boasts one of the sport’s top players, NiJaree Canady. The hard-throwing junior pitcher left Stanford in the off-season after leading the Cardinal to a pair of WCWS appearances and being named USA Softball National Player of the Year.
According to reports, she received a record-setting NIL deal worth over $1 million.
And the investment has paid off well for the Red Raiders, as Canady went into Sunday with the nation’s best ERA at 0.83. She was one of only two pitchers — the other is Tennessee Karlyn Pickens — with an earned-run average under 1.00.
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Thanks in large part to their star pitcher, Texas Tech has reached the Super Regionals for the first time in school history.
But Canady is apparently not a flawless machine. On Sunday, Mississippi State touched her up for eight hits and six runs (three earned) in five innings. That pushed her ERA up to 0.92 to go with a 28-5 record on the mound.
It marked the first time in 38 appearances this season (31 starts) that Canady allowed more than two earned runs.
FSU had some degree of success against Canady when she was at Stanford. Early in the 2024 season, the Seminoles dealt her a 4-0 loss during a tournament in Clearwater. In 5 2/3 innings that day, she gave up four runs (one earned) on six hits; she walked two and struck out six.
Four of the five FSU players who had hits in that game are still on the Seminoles’ roster.
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