2:00 Eastern/1:00 Central/11:00 Pacific: I'm following a bunch of game-trackers today, which you can access via the links on the right-hand side of this page (either through the CSTV page or particular teams' pages). I can report the following, for now... Northwestern has taken the first game from Michigan, 2-1, in Ann Arbor. Bottom of the 4th, Georgia leads Tennessee 2-0. I will add in links to game articles as they become available. 6:00 Eastern/5:00 Central/3:00 Pacific: Some updates... Michigan shut out Northwestern in the second game of their double-header, 2-0, thus producing a split. The Wolverines' Jennie Ritter pitched complete games in both ends of the twin-bill, giving her 28 innings pitched for the weekend. As this Northwestern article points out, the Wildcats still have the upper hand in the Big 10 race, with a pair of games remaining for each team next weekend. Georgia defeated Tennessee 7-6, thus giving the Bulldogs two out of three in the series aga...

Before the start of this weekend's play, first-place Northwestern was one game ahead of Michigan in the loss column in Big 10 competition. With Northwestern defeating Michigan State Friday and earlier today, and Michigan doing the same against Illinois, first place will be very much at stake in Sunday's Wildcat-Wolvernine double-header in Ann Arbor (although each team has two additional conference games remaining after facing each other). As summarized in the Saturday game story from the Michigan softball site: The victory runs Michigan's record to 33-12 overall and 11-3 in the Big Ten, while Illinois falls to 23-27 and 7-8. With a Northwestern sweep at Michigan State this weekend, the Wolverines remain in second place in the Big Ten behind the Wildcats, who are 35-10 overall and 13-2 in the Big Ten. Michigan will vie for first place in the conference and a chance to win its third straight Big Ten regular-season title when the Wolverines host the Northwestern Wildcats in...

Lots of big games this weekend, as the regular season come down to the home stretch. Starting with the Big 10 , first-place Northwestern (11-2 in conference) visits second-place Michigan (9-3) for a Sunday double-header. These two games will likely play a substantial -- though not necessarily decisive -- role in determining who finishes first in the league. The reason the Wildcat-Wolverine head-to-head match-ups may not decide the conference championship is that each team has four additional Big 10 games remaining. Michigan plays Illinois before Northwestern, and then Michigan State later on. Northwestern faces these same two opponents, but in the opposite order. Michigan pitcher Jennie Ritter is well-known for her performance last year in leading the Wolverines to the national championship. Probably less well known, but not necessarily any less effective, is Northwestern pitcher Eileen Canney, who gained attention by striking out 28 University of Minnesota batters in an 18-...

5:30 Central/3:30 Pacific: I see from CSTV's scoreboard and gametracker (link on the right-hand side of this page) that the University of Washington has defeated UCLA 3-2 in 12 innings, in the completion of the teams' rain-suspended April 15 game from when the teams were in Seattle. Though the resumption of the game took place on the Bruins' field, the Huskies, of course, batted as the home team. I will link to articles on this game as they become available. UCLA and "U-Dub" still have their regularly scheduled game to play later today, with the Bruins now becoming the home team. And Texas at Texas A&M is also coming up tonight! 9:45 Central/7:45 Pacific: University of Texas pitcher Cat Osterman came within one out of yet another no-hitter, giving up a single with two out in the home half of the seventh to Texas A&M's Rocky Spencer. The Aggies actually had runners on first and second at the end, due to a previous walk, but the Longhorns held ...

There's some good midweek action this week. On Wednesday, UCLA (No. 1 nationally) and Texas (No. 2) each takes on a ranked intra-conference rival in Washington and Texas A&M, respectively. According to a news release on the UCLA athletics website: UCLA faces an unusually busy Pac-10 schedule this week, as Washington travels to Los Angeles on Wednesday for 12 scheduled innings before the Bruins play host to Arizona and Arizona State on the weekend. Wednesday's schedule will begin at noon with the resumption of a game that was washed out in Seattle on April 15. Play will begin in the top of the third inning with UCLA's Ashley Herrera leading off. The regularly scheduled game then take[s] place with the Bruins batting as the home team. The Huskies, who are ranked 14th and 15th in the current national polls (see links to the rankings on the right-hand side of the current page), lost to the Bruins 6-0 on April 14 in Seattle, in the one game of that series that was able to...

Here are some pictures I took at last Thursday's Game 1 of the Texas at Texas Tech double-header. Some of the longer-distance photos are a bit fuzzy, but I think the overall set is pretty good. The opener was completed in light showers, but heavier rain during Game 2 forced its cancellation. First, a shot of Texas pitcher Cat Osterman in the circle. But for a Red Raider infield hit when Whitney Riley beat out a grounder to short in the fifth inning, Osterman would've had a perfect game. I checked " Cat's Korner " (that's "K" as in strike-out), Osterman's blog, to see if she wrote anything about the Texas Tech game. I'm curious how frustrated she felt at missing a perfect game or no-hitter. She has 20 no-hitters and seven perfectos in her college career, so it presumably wouldn't be as devastating as if someone were going for her first. Still, though, great athletes tend to be very hungry and competitive. As of now, her most recen...

Wrapping up the series I've been reviewing this weekend... Arizona fell just short of sweeping all three games on its northern California trip, dropping a 5-1 decision to Cal on Sunday. Arizona St., however, avenged yesterday's loss to Stanford, besting the Cardinal 3-1. U of A and ASU each thus went 2-1 in northern Cal, whereas the two host schools, Stanford and Cal, each went 1-2. As of when I'm writing on Sunday night, the Pac 10 website (see links on the right-hand side of the page) has not updated the conference standings. When they are updated, we will see that Arizona State and Arizona (who had been in fourth and fifth places, respectively) will have gained a bit on Cal and Stanford (who had been in second and third, respectively). UCLA remains at the top of the standings. In the SEC, Alabama defeated Georgia 4-1 to take their three-game series. In Big 12 play, Kansas stunned Texas 1-0. Northwestern (11-2 in conference) continues to lead the Big 10, after a sw...

Day 2 of the Arizona schools' trip through northern California is now on the books, albeit much later than expected for Arizona and Cal. The Wildcats and Golden Bears played for nearly double the regulation seven-inning length of a game, with Arizona prevailing 4-2 on a two-run homer by Kristie Fox in the top of the 13th. Taryne Mowatt pitched 13 innings for the win and also got two hits of her own in her six at-bats (Mowatt often plays in the field when not pitching). Meanwhile, Stanford rebounded from yesterday's loss to U of A by knocking off ASU, 3-1. Saturday's team match-ups will be repeated Sunday. Elsewhere, it was "splitsville" for Alabama and Georgia in their Saturday double-header, while Michigan took two from Ohio State. It's been a busy week for Wolverine senior pitcher Jennie Ritter , who got both wins vs. the Buckeyes today (going all seven innings in the first game, then five in relief of Lorilyn Wilson in the nightcap). Last Tuesday...

The most interesting story of this weekend appears to me to be the two Arizona schools going up to northern California to take on Stanford and Cal. At this point, score it Visitors 2, Hosts 0. Arizona defeated Stanford 4-1, while ASU blanked Cal 2-0. The teams will now switch opponents. Consider the attractions of these games: *All four teams are ranked in the Top 10 nationally. *As indicated in the official Pac 10 stats (as of April 17), excluding players whose at-bats are in the single digits, six of the top seven leaders in batting average are on these four teams: Caitlin Lowe, ARIZ......... .490 Kaitlin Cochran, ASU....... .480 Charters, Ashley, WASH..... .429 Sutton, Alex, CAL.......... .404 Morris, Catalina, STAN..... .400 Autumn Champion, ARIZ...... .400 Kristie Fox, ARIZ.......... .393 *Further, again removing players with very little action, five of the top six pitchers in Earned Run Average (ERA) are on the four teams: Selden, Anjelica, UCLA..... 0.73 T...

I'm just back from Game 1 of a double-header between the University of Texas and Texas Tech here in Lubbock, a 6-0 Longhorn win. The big story is that UT pitcher Cat Osterman came very close to yet another no-hitter -- and a perfect game, even. Other than a fifth-inning infield hit when the Red Raiders' Whitney Riley beat out a grounder to short, Osterman faced the minimum number of batters. I was sitting on the third-base side, so I didn't have a good view of the play at first base. Two other balls were well hit by Texas Tech -- a high fly to left that almost reached the warning track and a hard liner to short -- but Longhorn fielders caught the ball each time. This was the first time I had seen Osterman pitch in person. Moreso than when watching her on television, I was really struck with how tall and thin she is. Game 2, which I did not stay for, is currently underway. I just verified from a gametracker that Meagan Denny is pitching for UT, as would be expecte...

Tomorrow will finally be the day that Texas Tech University softball fans get to see their Red Raiders take on the University of Texas (ranked No. 1 or 2 in the nation in recent weeks) and its star pitcher, 6-foot-2 lefty Cat Osterman . The teams will play a double-header at Tech's Rocky Johnson Field (near the Health Sciences Center, to the south), with the games starting at 4:00 and 6:00. Lubbock's recent experience with temperatures in the 90s -- or as I call it, "Summer in mid-April" -- has fortunately ended. The weather forecast for Thursday's game is that it will be pleasantly cool (pleasant, in my opinion, at least). The (expected) morning rain hopefully will dissipate by gametime, with the temperature reaching 66 degrees. Unfortunately, the Raiders are struggling at the moment, having been swept yesterday by last-place Oklahoma State in Lubbock; prior to that, Texas Tech was swept by Kansas in Lawrence over the weekend. With the possible exception ...

As I’ve alluded to in recent postings, I wanted to discuss the four major softball conferences’ scheduling formats for league play. Below are the formats, as best as I could figure them out. You can, of course, see actual schedules via the links on the right-hand side of the page to conference and team websites. Teams may, of course, complete fewer conference games than scheduled, due to weather-related cancellations. Big 10: Each school plays each other twice. The standard format is for a given team to go play two single games at one school on a Friday and Saturday, respectively, then move on to play a Sunday double-header at a different school. The Big 10 actually has 11 schools (thanks to the addition of Penn State roughly 15 years ago). All schools participate in softball, giving each team 10 opponents and thus a 20-game conference schedule. Big 12: Each school plays each other school twice, either in a double-header or on consecutive days. Conference play can be on week...

A big week of softball coming up at Texas Tech. Newly hired Lady Raider basketball coach, Kristy Curry , will throw out the ceremonial first pitch tomorrow before the 3:00 opener of a TTU double-header against Oklahoma State. Two days later, Thursday, April 20, the University of Texas and star pitcher Cat Osterman come to Lubbock, also for a twin-bill (4:00/6:00). Keep checking back for my preview of the UT-Tech match-up.

Following up on yesterday's summary (below) of games for the first part of the weekend (Friday and early Saturday), I wanted to provide results for the rest of the weekend. If one were going to use a song to describe some of the Saturday and Sunday developments, it would be " Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head ." The second game of the UCLA-Washington series in Seattle experienced a stoppage due to weather. Quoting from the UCLA athletic website's article : There was no score through two full innings before rain, hail and wind gusts of up to 33 mph forced a rain delay and the eventual suspension of the game. Michigan, having played two games at Iowa, moved on to Wisconsin for a Sunday double-header, but it too was rained out . (Those of you who also follow Major League Baseball may have heard about the Blue Jays and White Sox trying to get in as much of their game as possible in rain-soaked Chicago .) In games that were completed... Though experiencing the midwestern...

Texas's Cat Osterman has just pitched her fifth no-hitter of the season and 20th of her career. It occurred earlier this afternoon in a 2-0 Longhorn victory over Oklahoma, in a game televised by ESPN. So commonplace has an Osterman no-hitter become, apparently, that UT's celebration after the final out was indistinguishable from what you'd see a team exhibit after any routine win; Cat's teammates just exchanged high-fives with her as they walked off the field. (I neglected to mention earlier that Texas also beat OU in the Friday series opener .) I'll have more about Osterman and the Longhorns in a couple days, as I preview the Texas at Texas Tech double-header coming up this Thursday (April 20) at 4:00 and 6:00 pm. As I discussed a couple of entries ago (below), softball pitchers are certainly capable of throwing in both games of a twin-bill, but it's conceivable Osterman could just pitch in one of the two games against the Red Raiders. Looking over the b...

In this posting, I preview this weekend's top college softball match-ups. Before doing so, it should be noted that UCLA has overtaken Texas as the No. 1 team in the nation, according to both major polls (see links on the right-hand side of the page to access these rankings). The Bruins swept two games from the University of Arizona in Tucson last weekend, an accomplishment sure to capture the attention of the nation's softball observers. Not only are UCLA and Arizona the most successful softball programs historically in the 24 years of NCAA play, winning 10 and 6 national titles, respectively. The two schools also have both been ranked in the top 5 nationally this year. Also this past week, the UCLA Daily Bruin (for which I wrote from 1980-1983, although, ironically, never covering softball) ran a feature on outfielders Whitney Holum (Jr.) and Krista Colburn (So.), two players who have elevated their games this year, thus adding offensive depth to a UCLA line-up that als...

This Friday (and all remaining Fridays of the regular season), I will preview the upcoming weekend's games. Before doing so, I wanted to do an entry, primarily for sports fans who have not watched much softball, on differences they could expect to see between softball and baseball. The Sandy Plains Softball Association of Marietta, Georgia has produced a document entitled Fastpitch 101 , which details the similarities and differences in the rules of the two sports. Here are some of my own observations from over the years: 1. Because the bases are considerably closer together in softball (60 feet) than in baseball (90 feet), softball infielders consistently must pick up ground balls and make their throws to first base quickly, in order to get the runner. In other words, many (if not most) softball grounders result in "bang-bang" plays at first base, necessitating a lot of close calls by first-base umpires, who must detect whether the thrown ball (to the first-baseperso...

Welcome to my new blog on women's college softball. Given my connections to UCLA (as an undergraduate), the University of Michigan (as a graduate student), and Texas Tech University (as a faculty member ), my focus will be on NCAA Division I softball in the Big 10, Big 12, and Pacific 10 conferences, as noted at the top of the page. As documented in this chart , all but two of the 24 NCAA Women's College World Series (WCWS) softball competitions to date have been won by teams from the aforementioned three conferences (10 alone by UCLA, excluding one that was vacated for infractions). Further, five of the eight teams in last year's World Series were from the Pac 10 (UCLA, California, and Arizona), Big 10 (Michigan), and Big 12 (Texas). The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is improving its profile in softball, with Tennessee and Alabama making last year's WCWS (Alabama also made it to a regional final against UCLA in 2004, which I attended while visiting in L.A.). I will...