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No. 1 ranked Alabama suffered its first loss of the season, falling 6-3 to host University of Washington at the Husky Classic.

Meanwhile, at the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Columbus, Georgia, two teams, Tennessee and Michigan, compiled 5-0 records against their respective opponents. Texas A&M went 4-1, losing only to UMass (which went 2-3). DePaul went 5-1, losing only to Texas A&M.

Among the other highly ranked teams nationally, UCLA swept all of its games in the San Diego tournament, with frosh pitcher Donna Kerr tossing a five-inning perfect game against St. Peter's; Northwestern dropped a game to Bradley in the Southern Illinois tournament; and Arizona State swept all its games in another of the many tournaments the Sun Devils are hosting this season.

Lastly, my local team, the Texas Tech Red Raiders, tasted victory for the first time this season, going 3-2 in the Fullerton tourney; Tech had been 0-12 coming in.

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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 .