Three collegiate coaches -- Michigan's Carol Hutchins, UCLA's newly retired Sue Enquist, and Eastern Connecticut State's former leader Clyde Washburn -- were inducted into the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Hall of Fame last weekend during the organization's convention in Tucson, Arizona. The NFCA issued a press release on the inductions, with a photo of the three honorees appearing (at the moment) on the NFCA's homepage . Michigan's athletics website has a nice release on Coach "Hutch," but I could not find anything comparable on UCLA's site. Washburn's accomplishments, at the Division III level, are summarized at the bottom of this document .

There's an interesting discussion thread going on over at Ultimate College Softball. One participant posted predictions for the upcoming Pac 10 season, and others are offering their opinions. Take a look! Update (December 11): Discussion threads focusing on several other conferences are also available at Ultimate College Softball's main college softball discussion board .

In what this article described a "light-hearted" event, the current (2007) UCLA varsity team took on a squad of Bruin alumni earlier today. The alumni roster featured a number of illustrious names, including Natasha Watley, Lisa Fernandez, and Tairia Mims Flowers. The game was tied after the designated number of innings, so a Home Run Derby was instituted to decide the game. Jodie Legaspi, who will be a senior for the current Bruin team this upcoming season, belted 10 homers in the long-ball competition to give her side a 12-11 win. Now why couldn't the 2002 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which had to be ended with a tie score after 11 innings because both teams had depleted their available pitchers, have been decided that way? The UCLA article also noted that: UCLA Softball opens its first season under head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez on February 9, 2007, against Texas as the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz. In case you hadn't heard, longtime Bruin coach Sue...

A couple of brief items: Northwestern left-fielder Katie Logan is maintaining an online journal on the Wildcats' fall preparations for this upcoming season. The University of Michigan has posted its 2007 schedule . With the Wolverines' 2005 national championship and Northwestern's 2006 national runner-up finish, the Big 10 is clearly one of the top conferences in the nation. I will continue to link to leading teams' 2007 schedules as they become available.

Here's a shocker, a bolt of lightning from totally out of the blue (and gold). UCLA coach Sue Enquist has retired at age 49, essentially effective immediately (technically, effective January 1). Here are links to reports from the Daily Bruin and UCLA athletics department . Starting next season, the Bruins will be coached by current longtime assistant Kelly Inouye-Perez . Enquist, who also played for UCLA, transitioned into the head coaching job over a period of many years. Quoting from the Daily Bruin article, "After she graduated in 1980, Enquist served as an assistant coach under Sharron Backus. From 1989 to 1997, Enquist co-coached the program with Backus before completely taking over the duties." The Bruins won three NCAA titles with Enquist as co-coach, then three more with her as sole head coach.

My apologies for missing this announcement when it first came out, but Arizona (like Michigan in the entry below) has also indicated which of its incoming frosh players have been invited to try out for the Junior National Team. These new U of A players are: "Third baseman/utility player Sarah Akamine, shortstop/outfielder K’Lee Arredondo and catcher/third baseman Stacie Chambers..."

The University of Michigan reported today that incoming frosh players Roya St. Clair and Maggie Viefhaus will be among the athletes trying out this weekend in Chula Vista, California for the USA Softball Junior Women's National Team. St. Clair and Viefhaus appear to be amazing power-hitting prospects, each compiling slugging percentages over .800 at the high school level (to compute SLG%, you first give a hitter one point each for every single she gets, two points for every double, etc., then divide the total by number of official at-bats). Should one or both of the newcomers earn a spot in the Wolverine starting lineup, they'll join junior-to-be Samantha Findlay in providing offensive punch for the maize and blue.

The United States has won the World Championship. After defeating Australia 5-1 in an elimination match, the US shut out Japan 3-0 in the final , thus avenging yesterday's American loss to Japan. Full results of all tournament games are shown here . On a lighter note, the sports uniform blog critiques the threads worn by the teams at the softball championships.

NEWSFLASH! The US team has lost to Japan , 3-1, in the World Softball Championships. The Americans will probably get a rematch with Japan for the championship, however. The US next faces Australia, whom it has already beaten 11-2, with the loser of this next match receiving the bronze medal and the winner playing for the title. Video coverage of the World Championships (archived, if not also live) is available at the tourney website . Softball fans are also dissecting the games on the discussion forums at Ultimate College Softball (see links section on the right).

The USA now has a 3-0 record in the World Championships in Beijing, China, Cat Osterman just having shut out Canada 4-0. A game-by-game schedule and results chart is available here , as part of the official tournament website.

The USA national team, which won mid-July's World Cup of softball in Oklahoma City, has now arrived in Beijing, China for the World Championships of the sport. Play begins August 27. The main distinctions between the World Cup and World Championships, as best I can tell, are that the latter has more teams competing and is being used to qualify nations for the 2008 Olympics. The website for the World Championships can be accessed here .

ESPN's coverage of National Pro Fastpitch continues, with a game on right now between the Akron Racers and Philadelphia Force. Players who recently finished their collegiate careers at last June's NCAA Women's College World Series are now becoming more apparent in NPF. As I write, former UCLA Bruin Caitlin Benyi is on deck for Akron. I've also seen Stephanie VanBrakle , a former star pitcher at Alabama who happens to come from Pennsylvania, bat for Philly in this game, but she's not pitching. Former Tennessee Vol Sarah Fekete is also listed on the Philly roster, but I haven't heard her name called today. She would have just recently returned from the World University Softball Championships in Taiwan (described in several entries below), so perhaps she's taking some time off for now.

Earlier tonight, ESPN presented a tape-delayed broadcast of yesterday's National Pro Fastpitch game between Philadelphia and Chicago. The game answered a question I raised in my July 20 entry, namely whether members of the US national team would be competing in NPF, considering that they still have the World Championships to play in about a month. The answer is yes , they are playing in NPF. I saw national team members Natasha Watley and Vicky Galindo participating in the Philly-Chicago contest (also noted in this game summary ). I think it's good for a sport -- especially one that's still new to much of the American sports public -- to showcase its top players as much as is practicable.

The United States has won the World University Softball Championship, defeating Japan and then Chinese Taipei (also referred to as Taiwan) on the final day. The University of Michigan duo of Jennie Ritter and Samantha Findlay led the way, the former pitching both games and the latter getting the game-winning hits both times (the US team was also headed by Wolverine coach Carol Hutchins).

Chinese Taipei has defeated the US again in the World University Softball Championships, this time 5-1 (see my entries below for links to the tournament website). I would have thought that two losses by the US (especially to the same team) would have eliminated the Americans, but that apparently is not the case. As noted on the tournament website: Chinese Taipei has advanced to tomorrow’s finals. The defending champion USA needs to play against with Japan tomorrow morning at 9 to acquire the last ticket to the championship game at 1pm.

A couple of items on tonight's softball agenda... The website for the World University Softball Championships being held in Taiwan reports the following result (with a little editing on my part of typographical symbols that went awry): On a hot summer afternoon with 98 F/37 C, Chinese Taipei (4-0) and USA (4-0) played a hot game. This game attracted a full crowd to cheer up for the home team. All the players performed very well. Chinese Taipei's amazing defense stopped America's offense. Chinese Taipei defeated USA with 4-2 victory. USA showed their guts to lead the game in the first inning by a single and double stolen bases. In the bottom of 1st, two triples and America's one error made Chinese Taipei come back by leading one run. In the later innings, while one team played hard to gain more runs with strong offense, and the other team played harder to defend. The second baseman, Tzu-Hui Pan, and short stop, Chiu-Ching Lee of Chinese Taipei even made beautiful slidi...

Results of the US team's first two games in the World University Softball Championships are in. The Americans have routed South Africa and Thailand. A results board is available here . I found it a little tricky to navigate at first, as it contains a "page within page" set-up. On the far right-hand side, there's the usual vertical bar to travel up and down the overall page. However, the square containing the scores also has its own vertical adjustment bar for moving up and down, on the right-hand side of the square. You'll figure it out. The place to click for box scores is self-evident, but you can also obtain brief stories on the games by clicking on the game headings (e.g., Game 4: THA vs. USA...). *** The US national team captured the World Cup of softball Monday night, with a 5-2 victory over Japan in the championship game. Japan's pitching ace, Yukiko Ueno, had a difficult time getting her 70+ mph fastball revved up, and fell behind early (some...

Looks like we'll soon have another run-rule-shortened game, as the US leads Japan 9-0 after four (a lead of at least eight, after five innings, would end the game). Even before today's game started, however, it was clear that it would have no bearing on Monday's championship round. The US and Japan each entered today's game with 4-0 records while each of the other teams had at least two losses, so a Monday night rematch in the title game was assured. Not surprisingly, Japan is saving its top pitcher, Yukiko Ueno, for Monday. Sunday's game has just ended, 11-zip. This article not only summarizes what happened in Sunday's game, but also provides a nice preview of Monday night's US-Japan rematch in the World Cup championship game and goes into some depth on the recent competitiveness of the US-Japan softball rivalry.

11:15 am Central: A long day of World Cup softball is just beginning, as the US game against Australia has just gotten underway. Cat Osterman is the starting pitcher for the Americans. Last night, the US defeated Canada 6-1, but many would consider the game closer than the score would indicate. Four of the Americans' runs came on a grand-slam homer, where all of the runners got on base after there were two out in the inning. The US has a second game today, against China at 7:00 pm Central. 12:40 pm Central: New opponent, same old result. The US gets a 9-0, five-inning run-rule victory over Australia. 9:00 pm Central: Yet another lopsided, premature end, with the US routing China 14-0 in five innings. I got home a bit after the game started, but heard the TV announcer say later on that the US scored 10 runs just in the first inning! The Americans next face last year's World Cup champion Japan, tomorrow at 12 noon Central. Whether Japan will use star pitcher Yukiko ...

As those of you watching ESPN are aware, the World Cup softball tournament is now underway ( official World Cup website ). Great Britain has just avoided -- for now -- a run-rule defeat to the US. A sliding-scale run rule is being used -- a bigger deficit is needed to terminate a game, the earlier it is. One such termination point is a 15-run deficit in the fourth inning, and the US was stopped in that inning with a 14-0 lead. The first two pitchers used by the American team were both collegians during this past NCAA season, Tennessee's Monica Abbott and Arizona's Alicia Hollowell. UCLA's Andrea Duran also made a big splash, socking a three-run homer. Jennie Finch , the early 2000's U of A star who gave birth in early May of this year, has now gone in to pitch the fifth for the US (an eight-run lead after five also ends the game). Great Britain has just gotten its first hit of the game, but doesn't score in the fifth. Game over. Many of the British players appa...

Over at the USA Softball website, I found the television schedule for the World Cup of softball, which starts tomorrow. Games will be televised on ESPN and ESPN 2. It is a six-team field, with round-robin play. Each of the US team's five pool-play games will be televised. These will take place on Thursday, Friday, Saturday (two games), and Sunday. The championship game is on Monday night. It probably will include the US, although nothing is certain. The Americans lost to Japan in last year's final, ending a long US stretch of dominance in international play. As I noted in my previous entry (immediately below), several collegiate players from this past season will be playing for the US.

USA Softball today announced the country's national ( press release , roster ) and university-level ( press release , roster ) teams for upcoming international competitions. On the roster pages, you can click on each player's name to get a profile of her (this feature does not appear to be available for the university team yet). The USA national team will participate in both the World Cup of softball, a six-team gathering July 13-17 in Oklahoma City and the World Championships , a 16-team competition August 27-September 5 in Beijing, China. Although the above-linked release for the university team says the squad will play in the 2006 World University Games, I'm pretty sure that's in error. The World University Games are played in odd-numbered years , plus this timetable says (correctly, I believe) the team will be playing in the July 15-23 World University Softball Championships in Taiwan. The national team's roster consists of 17 players. Eleven of them were...

Welcome to my end-of-season round-up of where things stand for 14 top college softball programs (the eight WCWS participants, plus six other teams that I would consider “high-level”). Below, I list each team's outgoing seniors (noting in bold which ones finished in the top 10 in any major NCAA statistical categories) and provide any news developments I'm aware of, related to a given team. A link to the NCAA statistical leaders is available here . Of all the statistics, I’m most skeptical of pitcher wins, because offensive support is obviously also a major factor there. Here we go! Arizona Seniors: Autumn Champion, Leslie Wolfe, Kelly Nelson, Alicia Hollowell (ERA 8th, K/7 INN 5th , Wins 5th) Here's a report on the Wildcats’ victory celebration back at U of A. Taryne Mowatt, who just finished her sophomore season with a strong offensive performance in the WCWS, ranked 9th in strikeouts per 7 innings in her pitching stints. Northwestern Seniors: Courtnay Foster, Sheila ...

Just a brief posting, as I continue to work on my big end-of-season round-up of where the top college softball programs stand, with the loss of their seniors from this past go-round. An announcement has been made that the "II World Cup" of softball (that's how it's listed, with the Roman numeral first) will take place July 13-17 in Oklahoma City. Six countries will participate: Australia, China, Canada, Great Britain, Japan (last year's inaugural winner) and the USA. This USA Softball timetable says that the "National Team Selection Camp" will start tomorrow, running June 12-16.

Well, another college softball season is on the books. I first want to thank everyone who has visited my blog during its inaugural season, and sent me e-mails. A blog is of no use if nobody goes to it! Second, I want to invite everyone to keep visiting the site over the summer. I've done write-ups nearly every day for the past few weeks -- and often multiple entries per day -- so I am going to relax for a while and slow down a bit in my postings. However, there are several topics I'd like to write about over the summer, so the entries will not come to a complete stop. Plus, even when I'm not doing much writing, I believe this site will always serve as an excellent portal to other softball sites, via the links section in the right-hand portion of the page. The next thing I plan to write -- probably within the next two weeks or so -- is a status round-up of the top softball programs (key seniors from this past season whose shoes will have to be filled, stadium upgrades,...

9:20 pm Central: It's now over! Alicia Hollowell strikes out the last Northwestern batter looking on a 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded, and Arizona wins the national championship, 5-0. In three games against Hollowell (two in the championship round and an early-season nonconference game), Northwestern never got a run off of her. Northwestern did get 9 hits tonight -- enough to threaten to score a few times while the game was still close -- but never got it done. Congratulations to the Wildcats -- the Arizona Wildcats for winning the national championship and the Northwestern Wildcats, runner-up in their first trip to the World Series in 20 years. 9:15 pm Central: Northwestern isn't going down without a fight. Trailing 5-0 with two out in the top of the seventh, NU has put together two singles -- make that three. It's still a huge long shot for Northwestern, of course, but U of A hasn't yet closed the deal... 9:05 pm Central: Arizona continues to str...

9:35 pm Central: Nothing happened since my last entry to change the dynamics of WCWS championship series Game 1. In fact, things even deteriorated a bit more for Northwestern, as it lost 8-0 (the same score by which U of A spanked NU earlier in the season, as the ESPN2 announcers pointed out). Arizona's Alicia Hollowell threw a no-hitter in that earlier game, and almost did so again tonight. Northwestern did get a hit this time, but only one. A single by Jamie Dotson leading off the bottom of the fifth broke up Hollowell's bid for a repeat no-hitter over NU. Combining the earlier no-hitter with tonight's game, Hollowell ended up pitching 10 straight hitless innings against the Purple* (not 11, as I had written earlier, as the previous game ended after six innings due to the "run rule" or "mercy rule"). *Since Arizona and Northwestern are both the Wildcats, I'm having to come up with alternative designations for the teams! 8:15 pm C...

8:00 pm Central: In what for the last few innings was just a formality, Arizona has defeated Tennessee to claim the second spot in the championship series. It all now comes down to the Wildcats (Northwestern) vs. Wildcats (Arizona), two-out-of-three starting Monday night, for the national championship. See you tomorrow... 7:40 pm Central: 6-0 Arizona, midway through the sixth. 6:55 pm Central: Another inning, another run, 5-0 Arizona. I wonder if the "run rule" (an eight-run lead after at least five innings) applies in the WCWS? 6:35 pm Central: It's now 4-0 Arizona in the second. This game could be getting out of hand soon, if it's not already! 6:25 pm Central: Arizona has taken a 2-0 lead over Tennessee in the top of the first inning of their winner-take-all game to qualify for the championship series. The Wildcats were helped in good part by shoddy Vol infield play (an apparent carryover from the ending of the two teams' first contest earlier today...

11:15 pm Central: A few final thoughts for the evening... As has been the case in past years' WCWS tournaments, Texas's downfall was lack of offense this year, too. Despite dramatic improvement offensively during the regular-season by the Longhorns, in the two losses that eliminated them from the World Series this year (against Arizona and UCLA), Texas scored no runs. After the last Texas batter was retired, pitcher Cat Osterman showed the sadness of having her collegiate career end without a national championship. As UCLA sports fans will probably never forget, after the Bruin men's basketball team pulled off a stunning comeback against Gonzaga this past March in the NCAA regionals, the Zags' Adam Morrison exhibited probably as much visible despondency as anyone in recent memory. As summarized in this ESPN.com article , UCLA's Arron Afflalo then made what I thought were some very gracious remarks regarding Morrison: "I felt for him," Afflalo said. ...

10:55 pm Central: Northwestern got by Tennessee, 2-0 , a little while ago. What this means is that Northwestern and Arizona are each one victory away from making it to the championship series, a 2-out-of-3 affair that would start Monday night. If Northwestern and Arizona indeed were to meet in the championship round -- and it's still very premature to say so -- it would be the Wildcats vs. the Wildcats! Let's take a look at the brackets , now that losers' bracket play will begin tomorrow... First, let's look at the top half of the draw (the part that started out with Arizona, Oregon State, Arizona State, and Texas). In the losers' bracket of this section, Oregon State and Arizona State meet tomorrow at 11:00 am Central, the loser going home. In determining the next opponent for the winner of this game, a little "switcheroo" comes along. Of the two teams that suffered their first losses tonight -- Texas and Tennessee -- Texas would seem to be the log...

11:21 pm Central: The first pitch of the UCLA-Tennessee game is delivered. The Bruins' Anjelica (Jelly) Selden throws a strike to the Vols' Sarah Fekete . 10:55 pm Central: It's over! Northwestern wins 6-5 in the bottom of the 10th. 10:35 pm Central: It's a long day of softball! Alabama is batting against Northwestern in the top of the 10th inning, with the score tied 5-5. And there's still another game to go (UCLA-Tennessee)! One minute it looks like Northwestern is going to win, then like Alabama is going to win, then Northwestern,... The Crimson Tide was one strike away from winning in the bottom of the seventh, and its pitcher, Chrissy Owens (who had earlier replaced Stephanie VanBrakle ) had not given up a home run all year. The Wildcats seemed to be in dire straits, but really they were in Dyer straits, Erin Dyer , that is. Sure enough, Dyer hit one over the center-field fence to tie the game. 6:45 pm Central: Texas has just finished off A...

We're now less than 24 hours away from the beginning of the Women's College World Series. One last topic I'd like to explore before the start of play is the participating schools' athletic budgets. The Indianapolis Star newspaper compiled what it calls the NCAA Financial Reports Database , which provides revenue and expediture information -- broken down into fairly fine-grained categories -- for a large number of NCAA schools. It's actually a lot of fun to poke around in the database, which you can access via the above link. You can select schools, and for each school, switch between "Revenue Statement" and "Expense Statement." I first viewed the database several weeks ago after hearing about it through -- what else -- a sports discussion board. As I was going back to look at it earlier today, I was hoping that information would be available specifically for softball, but that wasn't the case. As you can see, the breakdowns are only for...

One thing that cannot have escaped college softball fans is that many of the dominant pitchers are very tall, especially for women. Among the teams playing in the Women's College World Series, which begins Thursday, we have: Cat Osterman of Texas (whom I profiled in yesterday's entry, below), 6-foot-2; Monica Abbott of Tennessee, 6-3; and Brianne McGowan of Oregon State, 6-2. Given my recreational interest in physics , I've begun to wonder if longer pitching arms produce higher speed on the ball. We first need to establish that taller people have longer arms; indeed, arm span is positively correlated with height. Further, writings on various sports suggest that there may be something going on with height and/or arm length. Regarding whether 16-year-old female golfer Michelle Wie would ever be good enough to qualify to play on the men's PGA tour full-time, a commentator suggested on ESPN.com's website that: ... there is the fact that she is 6-foot-1 trendin...

Everything is now in place for softball's Women's College World Series, which begins Thursday in Oklahoma City. The official NCAA bracket is available here . For each game, the starting time and television information is provided. It looks to me like several of the teams have the potential to do a lot of damage. When a team as talented as Tennessee is the eighth seed, you know the field is going to be competitive! Of the many storylines that will unfold over the next week and a half, perhaps the most compelling one is that this year is Texas pitcher Cat Osterman's last chance for her and her teammates to win the WCWS. Already an Olympic gold medalist ( here and here ), and also the all-time NCAA softball strike-out leader , Osterman is softball's mega-celebrity, attracting enormous media coverage such as this splashy feature in USA Today . From Lawrence to Lubbock , her road appearances in the Big 12 have brought out some of the biggest softball crowds seen in...

Few minutes after 6:00 pm Central: We now have our eighth team for the Women's College World Series, Oregon State (in the postings below, all WCWS qualifiers are depicted in bold). The Beavers defeated Cal 3-0 and then 1-0 today, to take the teams' super-regional series 2-1. 4:40 pm Central: We have the identities of two more teams going to the WCWS (bringing the total to seven), but Oregon State has stayed alive against Cal, forcing a third and deciding game to determine the one remaining team for the World Series. Leave it to the Beavers! Here are the two teams (in bold) that have earned bids to Oklahoma City thus far today: Tennessee , which edged Michigan 1-0 in what must have been a very dramatic finish to those who saw it live. The reason I say must have been is that ESPN cut away to show a live Barry Bonds at-bat in his quest for 715 home runs, a number that would surpass Babe Ruth for second on the all-time list. Sure enough, Bonds blasted one deep into the c...

A little after 10:00 pm Central: It got a bit dicey at the end from LSU's perspective. But the Tigers, who led Arizona 3-0 going into the Wildcat (top) half of the seventh, were able to hold on for a 3-2 win, forcing a third and deciding game in their super-regional series later tonight. It looked to me like LSU might have been able to end Game 2 a little earlier than was the case, as a Wildcat batter took a pitch with two outs and two strikes that easily could have been called for a game-ending strike (discussants on the Ultimate College Softball forums seem to agree). The pitch was called a ball, however, and the batter rifled the next pitch for a line-drive the LSU shortstop was unable to handle. LSU retired the next U of A batter for the win, though. It's unclear to me whether Game 3 will be televised on one of the "regular" ESPN channels (ESPN or ESPN2), or only on the less-available ESPN-U. The recently concluded Arizona-LSU Game 2 was on ESPN2, but appa...

9:45 pm Central: The 1-0 Texas score over Washington alluded to below indeed held up , so the Longhorns now lead the series 1-0. Other finals... In Tuscaloosa, it was Crimson and Cardinal (sort of sounds like the Tommy James and the Shondells song, "Crimson and Clover"). Anyway, it was Alabama (the Crimson Tide) defeating Stanford, 4-1. Rounding out today's action, Arizona went a game up on LSU. In looking at the discussion forums at Ultimate College Softball (see link to UCS in the right-hand column of this page), it appears that additional series are being televised, beyond what I've noted so far. These additional games are on ESPN-U and College Sports TV (see link to the CSTV page, too). 8:20 pm Central: The Washington at Texas game is currently on ESPN, the Longhorns having just taken a 1-0 lead. The Huskies are now coming up in the top of the sixth. It'll be a busy softball weekend on ESPN and ESPN2, with the focus on the Michigan-Tennessee series...