By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
SHAWNEE MISSION – Nija Canady’s 14-strikeout performance boosted Topeka High passed Olathe North 6-0 in a Class 6A softball state quarterfinal on Thursday.
Topeka High wasn’t complete offensively until the midpoint of the contest at the Shawnee Mission District Softball Complex. It took the offense a while to click, but the defense was able to hold a previously red hot Olathe North team.
Topeka High senior NiJaree Canady pitched the Trojans to a 6-0 Class 6A state tournament win on Thursday, striking out 14 batters. [File photo/TSN]
Leading the Trojans' defensive pack was Canady. Canady pitched a complete-game shutout in Thursday night’s blistering cold game. Canady pitched seven innings, allowing three hits, not giving up any free passes and fanning 14 Eagle batters.
“I want to thank my team for today,” Canady said. “When you can get six runs as quickly as the offense did today, it helps me out a lot as a pitcher. I pitched with a lot of confidence. Even if I had a bad pitch or a bad inning, I knew my teammates were going to be there to back me up. We don’t play tomorrow if my teammates didn’t show up the way they did today. I’m excited to get back out there tomorrow with everyone.”
At one point of the shutout, Canady struck out seven batters in a row. Olathe North appeared to grow frustrated with each Canady strikeout.
“(Nija) was dominant today,” Topeka High coach Shane Miles said. “She hadn’t pitched in two weeks before today’s game. To come out and pitch the way she did today was a blessing. She will be ready to go tomorrow to pitch for us, too.”
Topeka High’s battery duo of Canady and Alesia Alvarez has been a noticeably good connection all season long. Alvarez was able to help guide Canady to her shutout and has been an integral part of High’s rotational success in the 2022 campaign.
“I think we pretty much have a flawless defense,” Alvarez said. “We had one error in the first inning, but we were able to bounce back from that relatively quickly. There was a lot of pressure put on us to win this game. I feel like we are sometimes tense at the beginning of our games, but once we settle in our defense and offense are amazing. I’m happy to get back out there with Nija and the team tomorrow.”
As Alvarez stated, the bats were tense at the beginning of the state quarterfinal contest. It took four innings for Topeka High to plate in runs and even get a hit.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Topeka High was able to gain some momentum from the bats of Alvarez and McCall Beall. Alvarez and Beall were able to bring two runners home and Topeka High looked terrific from that point on.
In the next inning, High lit up the scoreboard in dramatic fashion.
Adisyn Caryl would start things off in the bottom of the fifth inning with a solo home run. Caryl’s home run was a deep shot out to deep right-centerfield. Caryl’s excitement was contagious to the rest of the Trojans squad.
“I needed that solid hit off of my bat,” Caryl said. “I have been popping up a lot lately and I needed that home run. It felt great to get that hit. As an offense, we were really confident once we started putting up runs. We know Nija is going to do her thing and shut (Olathe North) down. We needed to keep up the runs so we could help Nija out and so that we would be able to play tomorrow.”
Canady would rush home on a passed ball that was only a few feet from the catcher and the slide got Canady home safely. Jo’Mhara Benning would obliterate the softball on a deep line-drive bringing home two more runs.
On the defensive side, Canady would already have 11 strikeouts underneath her belt in just five innings of work. With a 6-run lead, Topeka High just needed to play sound defense in order to advance to the semifinals.
Topeka High’s defense would execute the game plan for the next two innings and be able to shut down Olathe North’s highly ranked offense for its 6-0 victory.
“We can’t go into tomorrow and just walk through it,” Miles said. “Wichita Northwest is a great team who played well today. We can’t just look straight to the championship game. If we ignore Wichita Northwest, that will hurt us. We need to solely focus on Wichita Northwest and worry about the other stuff later.”
Topeka High (20-3) will play Wichita Northwest (18-5) at 12:15 PM on Friday back at the Shawnee Mission District Softball Complex in the semifinal round of the Class 6A Softball State Tournament.
TOPEKA HIGH 6, OLATHE NORTH 0
Olathe North (18-5) 000 000 0 – 0 3 3
Topeka High (20-3) 000 240 x – 6 6 1
HR: Topeka High – Caryl.
