Skip to main content
Late Night

Arizona has just beaten Arizona State for the second straight night, with a 1-0 score each time. Unlike last night, however, the Wildcats' run came early (in the second inning, if I recall correctly). U of A's Taryne Mowatt followed up her no-hitter last night with a two-hitter tonight (both by ASU's Kaitlin Cochran). A fact I learned from ESPN 2's telecast tonight is that ASU has never beaten U of A at the Wildcats' home facility, Hillenbrand Stadium, which opened in 1993; the Sun Devils are now 0-26 there. For game articles and box scores, you can check the two schools' team pages in the links section on the right; either later tonight or by tomorrow, stuff on tonight's game should be up.

Afternoon

The cold blast giving us "Winter in April" throughout much of the country has forced the postponement or cancellation of numerous softball games. Below the weather-map screenshot from a U.S. government page, is a sampling of headlines from university athletics websites, from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Lubbock, Texas:


Cold Wipes Out PSU Series; Sunday DH [with Ohio State] Pushed Back (Michigan)

Wildcats and Boilermakers Saturday Game Canceled (Northwestern)

Gopher Softball Games Against Iowa Cancelled (Minnesota)

Snow Forces Cancellation of Baylor-[Texas]Tech Softball Game

[Friday night, in freezing temperatures, the Bears overcame an early 7-1 deficit to beat the Red Raiders, 14-9.]

***

Arizona and Arizona State began their two-game series last night (see previous entry) and, as can be seen from the weather map above, seem all set to go forward with their nationally televised game on ESPN 2 tonight.

Popular posts from this blog

NiJaree Canady Transferring to -- of All Places -- Texas Tech

NiJaree Canady, whose sub-1.00 ERA helped lead Stanford to the Women's College World Series in both her years with the Cardinal, announced on July 24 that she is transferring to Texas Tech. I've lived in Lubbock for 27 years and can say that the town has been improving with a greater selection of restaurants and shops, and a new downtown performing arts center. Likewise, nice new facilities have been dotting the Texas Tech campus . Still, it seems unlikely that Canady would have become a Red Raider without the $1 million annual Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deal for her, made possible by the donation of a Texas Tech alumni couple. So stunning an event is this, even in the ever-changing world of collegiate athletics, that the New York Times  even ran a behind-the-scenes story on Canady's path to Texas Tech. I look forward to being in the stands to watch Canady pitch next spring, an opportunity I never expected to have.
Read more

Pitching Star NiJaree Canady Reportedly in the Transfer Portal

Stanford pitching ace NiJaree Canady has reportedly entered the transfer portal ( link ), having completed two seasons in the circle for the Cardinal. Stanford has made the WCWS in both of Canady's seasons on the team. Another school hit hard by the transfer portal is the University of Washington, with an exodus of eight Huskies . This list of the top ten players in the portal includes four from UW. Today is the final day of the 30-day window for players to enter the portal.
Read more
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.
Read more