OKLAHOMA CITY— It’s the time of the softball season when you dance with the one who brought you. Teams who choose not to, like Arizona State in its semifinal against Texas Tech, can pay dearly. It would be unlikely if the Arizona Wildcats or the Red Raiders made such a choice in the 2025 Big 12 Softball Championship final on Saturday morning.
Big 12 Player of the Year Devyn Netz brought Arizona. Big 12 Pitcher of the Year NiJaree Canady brought Texas Tech. All indications are that the two will match up for the third time this season in a rubber match.
While the Red Raiders won the regular season series 2-1 at Arizona, only one of those wins was a Dev-vs-NiJa matchup. The opening game of the series featured the two aces head-to-head. Netz and her team took the win 2-1. Game three of the series was again a face-off between two of the best in the country. That one went to Canady and her team by the score of 5-2.
The loss to TTU that day was the last L on the pitching record of Netz this season. She dropped to 17-5 that day. She will go into Saturday with a record of 22-5.
Canady emerged from the Arizona series with a 19-5 record. She hasn’t lost since the first game of that series and now sports a 25-5 record.
Both have thrown the most innings on their team by a considerable margin. Canady threw the first three innings of the Red Raiders’ 18-0 run-rule victory over ASU. She now has 174 innings on her right arm. Her fifth double of the season got TTU’s first run on the board against ASU. She has 80 at-bats this year. Canady has a minuscule WHIP of 0.69 and an ERA of 0.84 in 174 innings of work this year.
Netz has thrown 144.1 innings this season and allows 0.89 walks and hits per inning, but she has been far more important to her team’s offensive production than Canady has been. Her 156 at-bats have resulted in a team-high 17 home runs.
Both teams will hear their names called on Sunday. They hope to put it to bed on Saturday at 9 a.m. MST on ESPN, though.
Lead photo by Ryan Kelapire