By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
This is the second in a series profiling this year's inductees for the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame, which will be posted every week at baylorbears.com.
 
Sitting in Baylor softball coach Glenn Moore's office at the end of a 2013 season that ended with a loss to Texas A&M in the College Station Regional, Whitney Canion Reichenstein was "ready to call it quits" after her fifth year with the program.
 
"I felt so out of shape and my knee was still bothering me some," she said. "And I told him I didn't know if I wanted to come back. He told me, 'I want you to do what you want, but I don't want you to regret not playing. I don't want you to live the what if.' 
 
"Think about it, the last pitch I ever threw in a real game was at the Women's College World Series. And I wouldn't have done that if it wasn't for his advice that day. I trusted him with everything, and he didn't fail me. He didn't beg me to play, he just didn't want me to regret it."
 
Whitney, who already had school records for wins (92) and strikeouts (1,167), certainly didn't fail Coach Moore, either. Taking the Bears back to the Women's College World Series for the second time in four years, she was 31-12 with a 1.63 ERA and 306 strikeouts in 2014. 
 
A two-time All-American who was twice named Big 12 Pitcher of the Year, Canion Reichenstein was elected to the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame and is part of a class that will be inducted at the Nov. 1 Hall of Fame Banquet. 
 
"The Hall of Fame wasn't really on my radar until Chelsi got in," Whitney said of her sister-in-law, Chelsi Lake Reichenstein, a softball All-American who was inducted in 2018. "Just between the (Big 12) Alumni Council to this, it's been a really cool year to think about my time at Baylor and kind of relive it all in my head again. . . . It makes me teary-eyed just thinking about it."
 
The 2008 Gatorade Player of the Year when she led Aledo High School to the Class 4A state championship, Canion was Baylor's staff ace from Day 1. She was 27-17 with a 1.80 ERA and a single-season school-record 415 strikeouts as a freshman and helped Baylor to a Super Regional at Michigan. 
 
"We were two wins away from the World Series, and I had no idea," she said. "I didn't realize we were that close until we actually went to the World Series."
 
At the start of the 2009 season, Whitney's indoctrination into college softball was pitching two of the three games in a season-opening series against No. 1 Florida, tossing a three-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts in a 1-0 win over the Gators in Game 3. 
 
"I remember being just almost sick to my stomach in nerves," she said. "Before we left for Christmas break, Coach Moore told me I was starting that first game against Florida. I'll never forget being so naïve, thinking, 'Man, I didn't know you could get this much anxiety a month before a game,' and just not really understanding the mental and physical toll college sports takes on you."
 
Undergoing surgery to repair a fracture in her left forearm, Whitney missed most of the 2010 season before leading the Bears to their second World Series, going 31-12 with a 1.28 ERA and 339 strikeouts. 
 
Heavy underdogs in a Super Regional at No. 6 Georgia, Baylor got two wins and a couple massive home runs into the Georgia pines from Canion. They also survived a scary incident with catcher Clare Hosack, who suffered a broken bone in her face when she got hit by a foul ball. 
 
"You have to think, I'm the one that throws to her, and she was my travel roommate as well," Whitney said. "Playing the game and wondering what's going on with her . . . it was the unknown of not really getting updates. I still have a picture on my phone that I took of her cheek that night, and it used to be her profile picture every time she called."
 
That 2011 World Series included a pair of memorable 1-0, extra-inning wins over Oklahoma State and Missouri, when Kelsi Kettler and Holly Holl hit walk-off home runs. 
 
"After growing up, watching the World Series on TV, it gives me chill bumps thinking about running out there for an evening game that Thursday to start the World Series," Whitney said. '''Clear the mechanism' was always my saying, because I was like, 'Okay, there are so many people here, but don't look.' That was the most people I had ever played in front of."
 
Whitney's 2012 season was cut short when she suffered a torn ACL running to first base in a tournament at Getterman Stadium. 
 
"It was like a swinging bunt," she said. "The first baseman stepped into my base path, and I tried to go to the right. I didn't even make it to first base. . . . I will never forget that pop in my head. When I watch football and other sports, I want to throw up. . . . When I see them replay, I'm like, 'No, don't replay that!' That pop, I will never forget what happened with my knee."
 
Returning in 2013, Whitney was 24-9 with a 1.94 ERA and 269 strikeouts. But a promising season ended with a loss to the Aggies in the regional tournament. 
 
After deciding to come back for a sixth year, she put together arguably the best season of her amazing career. In one memorable day, Canion Reichenstein threw 305 pitches, giving up a walk-off home run in the 11^thinning of a 1-0 loss to Tulsa and then going the distance in a 3-1 victory over the Golden Hurricane to win the Waco Regional. 
 
"I remember being in the locker room, chit-chatting, but being upset that maybe this was my last game," she said of the first-game loss. "Coach Moore comes in and says, 'You're throwing again. You got me here; we are putting you in the circle.' We ended up beating Tulsa, 3-1, and went over to the president's house that night for dinner. There are just so many cool things about the Baylor family and atmosphere that I remember very vividly."
 
After sweeping Georgia in the Super Regional, Baylor had bookend losses to eventual national champion Florida, sandwiched around an amazing victory over Kentucky when the Bears overcame a seven-run deficit to beat the Wildcats, 8-7, in eight innings. 
 
"The offense we had in '14 was insane," she said. "I got to the World Series and was a little gassed. I had pitched every pitch at the regionals and Super Regional at Georgia. (Against Kentucky), I'm kind of beating myself up in the dugout, thinking this is my last game. I didn't feel like the world was on my shoulders in '14, where in '11 I felt that way. In '14, I wasn't thinking I had to do it all. That team was just really special in the fight that we had, that we never rolled over."
 
Married to fellow Baylor grad Luke Reichenstein, Whitney had her Baylor jersey No. 11 retired in 2015. The CFO at R&L Electric, a family business in Weatherford, she is the mother of two, a 6-year-old son, Nolan; and 4-year-old daughter, Reagan. 
 
"I have a daughter now, and I just hope that one day she understands and that I can share that story, whatever sport that may be," she said. "I don't think people realize how special those times are in college sports. Some of those things get taken for granted. I just think that the time that I had at Baylor and the experiences we had are really once-in-a-lifetime."
 
Joining Canion Reichenstein in the 20024 Baylor Hall of Fame class are Brittney Griner and Odyssey Sims from women's basketball, Ekpe Udoh from men's basketball, baseball's Michael Griffin, football's Mark Cochran, Nina Secerbegovic from women's tennis and Ronnie Allen from track & field.

The Hall of Fame banquet will be held at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 1 in the Grand Ballroom of the Hurd Welcome Center on the Baylor University campus. Tickets are $50 per person, with table sponsorships available for $600 (green level) or $800 (gold level). 
 
Registration is available at 2024 Baylor Hall of Fame Banquet.