The opening weekend of the 2009 season is here! Several tournaments will be getting underway today, the most prominent being the Kajikawa Classic. Hosted by defending national champion Arizona State, this year's Kajikawa also includes such high-level programs as the University of Arizona, Northwestern, and Stanford. A directory of all of this weekend's tournaments is available via Ultimate College Softball's "Scoreboard" page.
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.