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Illinois State, which has been right on the border of the national top 25, with a No. 25 ranking in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll and a position just outside the top 25 in the USA Today/NFCA poll, should be moving on up after this weekend's games. The Redbirds played in the Stacy Winsberg Memorial Tournament at UCLA and went 4-1, including a win over the host Bruins and two over nationally ranked Florida; the one ISU loss was to Cal State Long Beach, which the Redbirds avenged later in the tournament.

UCLA went 3-1 in the same tournament, with two wins over Loyola University Chicago and one over Florida. The Bruins gave up only five runs in the four games. However, reflecting some difficulties experienced in previous weeks by Anjelica Selden, now in her third year as the Bruins' No. 1 pitcher, there's a thread on the UCLA sports discussion board asking the question, "What's wrong with Jelly?" The initial commentary presents a number of statistics about Selden's performance over the years, followed by several replies.

Cal State Fullerton pitcher Candice Baker turned in another strong performance against a Pac-10 opponent, tossing a two-hit shutout against Oregon State (No. 11 and 13 in the national polls), with the Titans winning 1-0. Expectations for Oregon State were high going into this season, coming off the momentum from last year's Women's College World Series appearance, with the Beavers being ranked as high as No. 6 in the nation early in the season. The Beavers' record of 11-7 at this time may strike some as disappointing, but a lot of softball remains.

LSU lost another game to Washington in the Husky Classic, 6-3. I believe the original schedule said LSU and U-Dub would play two on Sunday, but they only played once today.

The 2005 NCAA champion, Michigan, has been out of the limelight of late, probably a combination of star pitcher Jennie Ritter (and a few other seniors) completing their eligibility last season and the Wolverines' absence from the top tournaments of the current season. For what it's worth, Michigan has now won 16 straight games and is 20-1 overall, having just finished play in the Jacksonville, Florida tournament. Frosh pitcher Nikki Nemitz is providing added depth in the circle, along with Stacy Delaney and Lorilyn Wilson.

Before arriving in Jacksonville, the Wolverines, ranked No. 9 and 13 in the two national polls, swept a doubleheader from Florida State in Tallahasse, giving their coach, Carol "Hutch" Hutchins, her 1,000th win.

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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.

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 .