Skip to main content
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 sweep today over Minnesota. Game 1 took 18 innings, with Wildcat pitcher Eileen Canney striking out 28 Golden Gophers. Defending national champion Michigan is in second at 9-3, after splitting two with Penn State today. Michigan hosts Northwestern a week from today in a double-header that will likely have major implications for the conference title.

Popular posts from this blog

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...

Florida Shines at Kajikawa Classic

The University of Florida, ranked No. 14 and 15 in the two major national preseason polls, pulled two major upsets en route to an undefeated 5-0 performance at the season-opening Kajikawa Classic at Arizona State. Among the Gator victims were three Pac 12 schools: No. 3 Cal (by a score of 7-4), No. 5/6 Oregon (1-0), and No. 13/14 Arizona (14-3). Full results of the tournament are available here .
Washington used a first-inning grand-slam homer from pitcher Danielle Lawrie and some late insurance runs to defeat Georgia by a score of 9-3 in tonight's late game. The win gives U-Dub a spot in the best-of-three championship series against Florida starting Monday (Georgia had defeated Washington earlier today, 9-8 in nine innings, to force tonight's rematch). The Huskies thus claimed "top dog" status over Georgia on their side of the bracket. Florida got a two-out grand-slam homer from Ali Gardiner in the bottom of the seventh to edge Alabama 6-5. The Crimson Tide made a strong recovery in the tournament after looking "not ready for prime time" in an opening-round loss to Michigan. But, as a result of tonight's heartbreaking loss to the Gators, Bama is now eliminated. Lowrie's and Gardiner's grand-slams are among four that have been hit so far in this World Series.