Stanford tops Washington in pitcher’s duel to open series

The Washington Huskies couldn’t solve NiJaree Canady on Friday night, dropping the first of a three-game series with Stanford.

The Washington Huskies hold the No. 12 batting average in the nation and have consistently displayed one of the country’s best offenses all season long, but facing Stanford’s NiJaree Canady proved to be a different challenge.

Canady, who leads the country with her .51 ERA stifled Washington’s bats on Friday, holding coach Heather Tarr’s team to just 4 hits as the No. 7 Cardinal took the opening game of the series 3-1 from the No. 8 Huskies.

Stanford jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning by way of an RBI groundout from catcher Aly Kaneshiro and an RBI double from left fielder Kyra Chan. Infielder Giselle Alvarez answered with a solo home run in the sixth inning to cut the lead in half, but a solo shot from the Cardinal’s Jade Berry in the final frame put the game out of reach.

Canady tossed a complete game, allowing just 4 hits, 1 walk, and 1 earned run while striking out 11 batters to improve her record to 16-4 on the season. Ruby Meylan went toe-to-toe with her, also working all 7 innings, allowing 3 hits, 2 walks, and 3 runs (1 earned) with 8 strikeouts.

The loss pushes the Huskies to 30-9 on the season and 12-7 against Pac-12 opponents, while the Cardinal improved to 38-10 and 14-5 against conference opponents. The two top-ranked teams in the conference will meet for the second installment of their three-game set on Saturday at 3:00.