In the 2020s there have been few constants aside from my being unable to get even an interview from a media company. At least once in every commute I’d see some dolt would be driving alone in their car wearing a respirator mask white-knucking their way through traffic as if the car next to him was somehow going to infect him. A moronic all-caps “truth” sent in the middle of the night would become headline clickbait that would somehow find its way into my timeline. And Oklahoma was going to win the national college softball title.
Well, last night on what was virtually their home field, that all changed, as CBS SPORTS’ Carter Bahns shared:
Oklahoma’s pursuit of a fifth consecutive Women’s College World Series title came to an end Monday in a dramatic 3-2 defeat at the hands of Texas Tech. The Red Raiders walked it off in the bottom of the seventh inning with a sacrifice fly to hand the Sooners their second loss of the tournament and dash their hopes of making a run through the losers bracket all the way to the national championship. TTU is now the first program in WCWS history to reach the championship series in its debut trip to Oklahoma City since, coincidentally, the Sooners did so in 2000.
And thanks to the luck of the draw and a break in the professional playoffs thanks to no game seven in any of the four conference finals, Texas Tech had the national stage all to itself last night, and from there we discovered someone who I’m fairly certain is going to become, if not the next Caitlin Clark, at least the next Lisa Fernandez (Google it if you must):
Texas Tech, with star pitcher and major NIL investment NiJaree Canady in the circle, snapped a 37-game losing streak to Oklahoma and clinched a spot in the championship series with Texas in the process. Canady cruised through six shutout innings and nearly finished out the complete game shutout.
But the Sooners, with their dynasty on the line, wouldn’t go down quietly. They were down to their final strike when No. 9 hitter Abigale Dayton improbably launched a two-run home run with two outs in the top of the seventh to level the score at two. Dayton’s clutch blast — just her third homer of the season — kept the Sooners’ season alive, but only briefly. In the bottom of the seventh, the Red Raiders got a single from Mihyia Davis and a double from Hailey Toney, setting up the game-winning sacrifice fly from Lauren Allred, scoring Davis.
SPORTS ILLUTRATED’s Alison Smith highlighted a few more eye-opening reasons why in women’s sports the new day dawning appears to be Cana-dy:
Coming into tonight, NiJaree Canady has thrown 
consecutive pitches for Texas Tech, every pitch of Super Regionals and the WCWS. Additionally, she has thrown 
consecutive pitches for her teams at the WCWS. 
Yep, I know even for these musings that’s a bit excessive. But so are those numbers and the magnitude of the accomplishment she was able to achieve. And if she can follow that up with a similar outing in what will now be a Lone Star State final round that gets under way tomorrow night–against the standardbearer Texas Longhorns–she will become one of the biggest stories in the state–and yes, I’m including Arch Manning (yet to emerge) and Jasmine Crockett (she just won’t stop performing for the cameras, will she?).
Meanwhile, the boys in hardball are merely in their first round, which produced 16 winners from regional foursomes to advance to the de facto semifinals this coming weekend. But because of college’s double-elimination structure that doesn’t always lead to a climactic conclusion save for the finals, we saw another number one knocked off even before the final seeds were awarded, which Bahns’ colleague Austin Nivison told us about Sunday night:
With a 5-4 loss to Wright State on Sunday, Vanderbilt became the first No. 1 seed to fail to reach the regional final of the NCAA Baseball Tournament since the current format was adopted in 1999. The Commodores dropped two straight games on their home field after winning their opener on Friday. One of the most successful college baseball programs in recent history, Vanderbilt entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed following an SEC Tournament title. The Commodores were viewed as a true national championship contender, but their run was cut short on Sunday.
Yes, that was Wright State that did that. A school named for the brothers and that would otherwise only be part of the national college scene when they’d occasionally win a Horizon League tournament and eke into March Madness. Yes, the Horizon League knocked off the SEC.
And if that’s not madness, no matter what month it occurs in, I’m not sure what is.
Well, maybe someone wearing that dopey mask in their car with the windows UP?
Courage…