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USA Today
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
NiJaree Canady parents: What to know of Texas Tech star's background, high school stats
NiJaree Canady parents: What to know of Texas Tech star's background, high school stats Show Caption Hide Caption Why Texas Tech, Texas will win 2025 WCWS It's a Lone Star State Women's College World Series this year, and reporter Jenni Carlson breaks down one reason Texas Tech will win and one reason Texas will win the WCWS. Texas Tech ace NiJaree Canady has proven to be one of the best pitchers in recent college softball memory, especially at the Women's College World Series. And it makes plenty of sense given her background. Canady, who led the Red Raiders into the national championship series against Texas on Monday after defeating No. 2 Oklahoma in the semifinals, owns a 0.90 earned-runs average this season with 304 strikeouts in 226 innings. The sought-after transfer was the USA Softball Player of the Year in 2024, and recorded a 0.57 and 0.73 ERA in two seasons at Stanford before transferring to Texas Tech. Canady has led Texas Tech to its first regional host nod and its first appearance in super regionals, the WCWS and national championship series. She looks to take down in-state foe Texas, which also has yet to win a national championship despite reaching the final series in three of the last four seasons. Canady comes from quite the athletic background. Here's what to know about her parents, family and high school stats prior to becoming a Texas Tech phenom: WCWS HIGHLIGHTS: Texas Tech dethrones 4-time defending champ Oklahoma NiJaree Canady parents Canady's parents are Katherine and Bruce Canady. Her father played Division II football at Washburn in Topeka, Kansas, Canady's home state. Canady's brother, BJ Canady, is a redshirt freshman defensive lineman for the California, Golden Bears, although he didn't appear in any action as a freshman in 2024. Parents of prominent players are commonly shown on the ESPN broadcast of WCWS games, as the event prioritizes the family of some of the players. Each year, WCWS ushers bring home run balls to the family of the player who it the ball. Canady's dad was instrumental in her success before she turned into one of the best college softball pitchers ever. She played tackle football and baseball before eventually turning to softball, where she played multiple years up from her age group, Bruce Canady told FloSoftball. "She definitely put a whole lot of work into it," Bruce Canady told D1Softball at the 2025 WCWS. "We always said, our motto: Who works the hardest gets the most. And that's absolutely what's happened." NiJaree Canady high school stats Canady completed in track and field, basketball and softball in high school. Canady was also quite the basketball prospect, although she chose softball. She was rated as a four-star recruit in the 2022 recruiting class, according to ESPN, and averaged 20 points with 11 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game across her high school career. Canady led Topeka High School in Kansas to back-to-back state championships in softball in 2021-22 and was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in Kansas for softball in both of those years. She was completely dominant, finishing with a 0.26 ERA with 232 strikeouts in 107⅔ innings as a junior, before tossing a 0.82 ERA with 163 strikeouts in 74⅔ innings as a senior. Canady, like she does in college, also swung the bat at an absurd level, posting a .530 batting average with 42 RBIs as a senior. She also hit .478 with 13 home runs the season prior. Canady was the No. 11-ranked recruit in the 2022 recruiting class, according to Extra Innings Softball.
USA Today
29-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Keilani Ricketts tops list of greatest Oklahoma softball players of all time
Keilani Ricketts tops list of greatest Oklahoma softball players of all time Picking the greatest Oklahoma softball player is a bit like picking the greatest New York Yankees player of all time. If the remark sounds farfetched, consider the Sooners have won eight national championships in the last 25 years. No team, in any sport, college or pro, in North America has that kind of dominance. A bit like the Yankees of the 20th century. So when The Oklahoman's Jenni Carlson counted down the top 50 players in OU softball history (Subscription Required), the whole of the list was just as interesting as who would sit atop. And just like Babe Ruth is practically a unanimous choice for No. 1 for the Yankees, Oklahoma's top spot isn't the most surprising, either. And that's not where the Ruth comparisons end. Carlson named former Sooners pitcher Keilani Ricketts as the greatest player in school history. Pitcher, if you forgot, hardly does her justice. Ricketts was nearly as good a hitter as she was in the circle. "OU softball's Babe Ruth," Carlson wrote. "She was a two-time USA Softball Player of the Year and is the only Sooner to win the Honda Cup as the nation's top female college athlete." Ricketts ranks fifth in Oklahoma history with a .503 on-base percentage and 10th with a .674 slugging mark. She also holds a 1.26 earned-run average over more than 1,000 innings, making her the only player in school history to hit that mark. Ricketts is the Sooners' all-time leader in games started, appearances, wins, and shutouts. Just as impressive, Ricketts' 1,605 strikeouts are by far the most in Oklahoma history. Paige Parker, who sits second on the list, recorded 968 strikeouts over her four-year career. Two current players cracked the top 50. Sophomores Ella Parker and Kasidi Pickering ranked 42nd and 43rd, respectively. That duo will lead the Sooners into the Women's College World Series on Thursday. Oklahoma will play Tennessee in the first round at 1:30 p.m. CT. The Volunteers won the season series, two games to one in Knoxville. Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions.
USA Today
29-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Tennessee softball: How hard does Vols' star pitcher Karlyn Pickens throw?
Tennessee softball: How hard does Vols' star pitcher Karlyn Pickens throw? Show Caption Hide Caption Texas Tech's NiJaree Canady and Tennessee's Karlyn Pickens lead WCWS players to watch The Oklahoman's Jenni Carlson highlights several Women's College World Series key players to watch. Tennessee softball begins its seventh appearance in the Women's College World Series against a familiar program, which also happens to be the sport's biggest titan: Oklahoma. The Vols, however, have already had one successful swing at taking down college softball's Goliath this season, as they took the regular season head-to-head series against the Sooners. It was just one of three SEC regular-season series losses that Oklahoma, which is looking for its fifth straight national championship, had. A big reason for the Vols' regular-season success was their star junior pitcher Karlyn Pickens, who Tennessee will need to beat the Sooners on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. ET at Devon Park in Oklahoma City. REQURIED READING: WCWS bracket 2025: Full schedule, matchups for NCAA softball tournament In that three-game weekend series back in March in Norman, Pickens went 2-0 in 12 2/3 innings of work and struck out 12 Sooners' hitters while giving up just four runs on 10 hits and three walks. The success the back-to-back SEC Pitcher of the Year had against OU is a small snippet of the dominance that she has showcased this entire season inside the circle for the Vols. A top-10 finalist for the USA Softball Player of the Year award, Pickens put Tennessee on her back in the Knoxville Super Regional vs. Nebraska with back-to-back complete game performances to win the series. But as fans watch the Vols play for their first WCWS national title with Pickens in the circle, one thing will stand out above all the skills that the North Carolina native has while pitching: how hard she pitches. Here's what you need to know on how hard Pickens throws inside the circle: How fast does Tennessee softball's Karlyn Pickens throw? In short, very, very, very fast — like literally so fast. In Game 1 of the Knoxville Super Regional, the Vols' right-hander showed that she has more gas in the tank to showcase, as she set a new NCAA record for fastest pitch recorded with a 79.4 mph fastball on the seventh pitch of a first-inning at-bat against Nebraska's Jordy Bahl. Bahl, who is one of the other top pitchers in the country, would foul off the pitch. As noted by the Big Ten Network's Sydney Supple, Pickens' near 80 mph pitch gave Bahl (or any batter) a reactionary time of .341 of a second to pick up and swing at the pitch. The distance from the rubber on the pitcher's mound to home plate is 43 feet. Pickens' flame-throwing pitch against the Cornhuskers broke her previous NCAA record of 78.2 mph, which she set back in March against Arkansas. Prior to setting the record against Arkansas in SEC play, Pickens had been tied with former Tennessee pitcher Monica Abbott for the fastest pitch in NCAA history, a record that Abbott held for 13 years. "She's definitely in a league of her own," Abbott recently told Knox News, part of the USA TODAY Network, on Pickens. Abbott added: "Some people were like, 'Oh, man, RIP to your record.' And I was like, 'Not really – like hell yeah, look at our sport.' I held that record for 10-plus years ... And we got someone that's just a junior in college breaking it? That's incredible." REQUIRED READING: There's more to Tennessee flamethrower Karlyn Pickens than the fastest pitch ever in softball Karlyn Pickens softball stats Pickens enters the WCWS with a 24-9 record and a 1.00 ERA in 204 innings of work in the circle this season. She has recorded a career-high 280 strikeouts while throwing 22 complete games, two of which came in the Knoxville Super Regional vs. Nebraska. Her 1.00 ERA in the circle this season leads all Tennessee pitchers and ranks second in the country, only behind Texas Tech's NiJaree Canady's 0.89 ERA. Here's a game-by-game breakdown of Pickens' stats this season in the NCAA softball tournament:
