STANFORD – Sophomore NiJaree Canady cemented her status as one of the best pitcher in college softball by staving off the specter of elimination for a second straight shutout to steer No. 8 Stanford back to the Women's College World Series.
Canady allowed three hits and a walk in six innings, and Stanford broke through with seven runs within the fifth inning to beat No. 9 LSU 8-0 in six innings on Sunday within the deciding game of the best-of-three Stanford Super Regional at Smith Family Stadium.
The Cardinal (48-14) will face league leaders Texas on Thursday at 4 p.m. in Oklahoma City.
This shall be Stanford's fourth WCWS appearance. The team reached the national semifinals last season behind Canada and in addition competed in 2001 and 2004 when coach Jessica Allister was the Cardinals' starting catcher.
Senior Caelen Koch had two doubles and an RBI single against LSU starter Sydney Berzon, and freshman Jade Berry hit a three-run homer on reliever Raelin Chaffin's first pitch.
Kaitlyn Lim finished the sport with a leadoff home run within the sixth inning.
Canady, who leads the NCAA with a 0.67 ERA, allowed a career-low six runs in 4 innings within the series opener against the Tigers (44-17) on Friday night, but she responded with a two-hitter in Stanford's 3-0 win on Saturday and allowed just five baserunners on Sunday.
The Tigers had all bases loaded with one out within the fifth inning, but left fielder Kyra Chen caught a fly ball and threw out an LSU runner coming from third base, ending the inning.
The Cardinal exploded within the second half of the inning.
River Mahler began with a triple and grounded out to provide Stanford the lead. The Cardinals had two runners retired at bat on this inning, but RBI singles from Ava Gall, Aly Kaneshiro and Koch prolonged the lead.
That was good enough support for Canada, which improved to 23-5 and can now prepare to face the country's No. 1 on Thursday.
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