Texas Tech Softball was included in the awards for the final week of the regular season. It's just enough to push the team into the postseason with momentum.
LUBBOCK, Texas - Texas Tech stars Jasmyn Burns and NiJaree Canady received Player and Pitcher of the Week honors, respectively, in the Big 12 Conference's final weekly release of the regular season.
Burns earned her first honor of the year as the transfer catcher launched four home runs against Tarleton State and Baylor. The No. 2/4-ranked Red Raiders stretched their win streak to nine games in the process.
Canady capped her senior year at home with one of the best outings of her historic career. The All-American pitcher tossed her first career perfect game as Tech beat Baylor 8-0 in five innings on Saturday, allowing the team to become the first in the country to reach 50 wins on the season.
This was Canady's fourth weekly honor of the year and her sixth in two seasons at Texas Tech.
The reigning conference and national pitcher of the year now leads her team into the postseason, where Texas Tech is the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 Softball Tournament, played at Devon Park in Oklahoma City, which will host the annual Women's College World Series in the weeks to follow.
Texas Tech Enters Postseason With Simple Mission
The Red Raiders made light work of the Big 12, winning the league's regular-season title for the second year in a row and by a dominant five games. Now, they aim to sweep the crowns and win another tournament championship.
Texas Tech will face a familiar foe. The top seed drew the No. 8-seed Baylor, not even a week after sweeping the Bears in Lubbock to end the regular season. It will be the fourth matchup in seven days between the two teams.
Burns and Canady led the Red Raiders to wins of 5-0, 8-7, and 8-0 in the set against Baylor last weekend.
The single-elimination tournament begins at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday. Potentially awaiting Texas Tech in Round 2 is either 4-seed UCF or 5-seed Kansas.
The mission is simple. Win, again.
As the Red Raiders have another WCWS berth in mind, they'll begin to pay close attention to the metrics the NCAA uses to measure hosting rights, like RPI and strength of schedule.
Texas Tech could enter the national tournament with a consensus top-5 ranking and among the few with over 50 wins, but their current RPI sits around "the middle of the road," according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal's Nathan Giese.
"RPI is something that hangs everybody's heads this time of year," Giese says. "While NCAA-sanctioned sports such as basketball and football have made the metric obsolete with other avenues to measure team quality, sports like softball and baseball remain beholden to the mystery number that, quite frankly, doesn't make a lot of sense."
The NCAA's RPI metric - or Rating Percentage Index - is a formula that weights certain metrics to determine overall competitiveness: 25 percent team winning percentage, 50 percent opponent winning percentage (strength of schedule) and 25 percent opponent's opponent winning percentage. I know, it's a lot to digest.
Tech head coach Gerry Glasco agrees.
"The RPI this year is weird," Glasco said. "The formula, if you look at the number one team, they're seventh place in their conference. There's a lot of inconsistencies, and the committee will figure it out."
Canady mentioned how, despite a so-so RPI last year, the team was still able to host the Regionals and play the Supers at home after advancing.
"Honestly, we were a 12 seed, and that ended up pretty decent for us," Canady said. "Of course, we want to stay home, and that's always the goal, especially for our fans. I feel like it would be really cool for our fans to see us play here, but we're prepared to go on the road too."
The easiest way to make that happen? Handle business against Baylor in the conference tournament quarterfinals, and on from there.
