Skip to main content

How Leading Teams Did -- Week 1

The National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) has put out this document, showing how all of the nation's leading teams did in their games from February 3-9. Summaries are available for all teams in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25, plus all teams that received votes in the poll but didn't make the Top 25. I assume the NFCA will do this every week, so interested readers might want to check the NFCA website every Sunday night. Here are some noteworthy results from this weekend's play:

  • Defending NCAA champion and preseason No. 2 Oklahoma losing its first two games of the season, to Kentucky and Cal State Fullerton.
  • No. 4 Florida scoring a stunning come-from-behind victory over No. 5 Michigan. As shown in the play-by-play sheet (under the box score), the Gators were down to their final out in the top of the seventh, with one runner on base and trailing 4-0. However, Florida then put together three hits, a hit-batter, a walk, and another hit to tie the game 4-4. After the Wolverines failed to score in their half of the seventh, the teams went to extra innings, where UF scored five times in the top of the eighth. UM went quietly in the bottom half, giving the Gators a 9-4 win.
  • No. 8 Oregon losing to Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo)
  • No. 9 Nebraska and No. 15 Florida State splitting a pair.
  • No. 10 Texas losing to Northern Iowa and Purdue.

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.