{"id":244971,"date":"2026-04-11T10:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T10:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/244971\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T10:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T10:51:13","slug":"texas-tech-softball-star-nijaree-canady-awarded-1st-golden-ticket-for-2026-ausl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/244971\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Tech Softball Star NiJaree Canady Awarded 1st Golden Ticket for 2026 AUSL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Texas Tech softball ace NiJaree Canady received the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/nijaree-canady-gets-golden-ticket-for-ausl-college-draft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">first golden ticket<\/a> for the 2026 AUSL Draft, with commissioner Kim Ng surprising the senior following the Red Raiders&#8217; Big 12 matchup against Iowa State.<\/p>\n<p>The golden ticket guarantees Canady a spot in <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/pro-softball-league-ausl-athletes-unlimited-debuts-to-sell-out-crowds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Athletes Unlimited Softball League&#8217;s<\/a> 2026 Draft, set for May 4th.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As one of the most talented players in the game today, it is fitting that NiJaree is the first recipient of a golden ticket this year,&#8221; Ng said. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is also the beginning of what will be a truly special draft class, with many outstanding players across the country.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Canady ranks among college softball&#8217;s most decorated athletes. The pitcher earned multiple first-team All-American honors, won 2024 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, captured back-to-back National Fastpitch Coaches Association <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/ncaa-softball-stars-win-college-player-of-the-year-awards-ahead-of-wcws\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">National Pitcher of the Year<\/a> titles, and claimed the Honda Sport Awards for Softball in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/stanford-breaks-ncaa-softball-attendance-record-with-big-swing-cal-game\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Stanford transfer<\/a> made headlines when she signed a record-breaking <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-sports\/softball\/story\/_\/id\/45166461\/2025-wcws-college-softball-texas-tech-stanford-nijaree-canady-pitcher\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">$1,050,024 one-year contract<\/a> via The Matador Club, an NIL collective affiliated with Texas Tech softball. She signed another seven-figure deal last year, after leading the Red Raiders to its first <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/texas-tech-forces-winner-take-all-championship-game-at-2025-wcws\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WCWS championship<\/a> appearance.<\/p>\n<p>Canady recently launched her Adidas signature player-edition cleat, the ADIZERO Instinct 2.0 PT &#8220;NiJa,&#8221; becoming the first NCAA softball player to release a signature Adidas shoe.<\/p>\n<p>AUSL representatives and softball celebrities will visit college campuses throughout the next month to award additional <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/ausl-athletes-unlimited-softball-taps-ncaa-softball-stars-ahead-of-first-pro-league-draft-how-to-watch\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">golden tickets<\/a> to this year&#8217;s draft class.<\/p>\n<p>How to Watch NiJaree Canady at the 2026 AUSL Draft<\/p>\n<p>The 2026 AUSL Draft is set for May 4th, with live coverage starting at 7 PM ET on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/watch\/catalog\/017f41a2-ef4f-39d3-9f45-f680b88cd23b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">ESPN2<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Tech softball ace NiJaree Canady received the first golden ticket for the 2026 AUSL Draft, with commissioner&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[93503,56518,168,170,169,66700,56530,56529],"class_list":{"0":"post-244971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lubbock","8":"tag-2026-ausl-draft","9":"tag-ausl","10":"tag-lubbock","11":"tag-lubbock-headlines","12":"tag-lubbock-news","13":"tag-ncaa-softball","14":"tag-nijaree-canady","15":"tag-texas-tech-softball"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}