Getting ready for Game 2 between Florida and Oklahoma... Last night, OU played the wild-card with its starting pitcher, opting for usual closer Paige Lowary... Tonight, Florida's making an even bolder move, starting Aleshia Ocasio, who has pitched only five innings ( here ,  here , and here ) since April 30 (I misheard what the ESPN announcers initially said, leading me to think Ocasio had pitched very few innings all season; my apologies). In her first two years at UF (2015 and 2016), Ocasio pitched 136 and 146.1 innings , with ERA's of 2.01 and 0.77, respectively. However, with the emergence of Kelly Barnhill and Delanie Gourley in the circle for Florida, Ocasio has been playing mostly at third base this season...  The Sooners are the home team tonight... TOP 1 -- Lead-off walk to Amanda Lorenz... Bunted to second... Pop-up for second out... Another walk... Soft liner to first, Shay Knighten fields on a bounce and steps on bag for third out... BOTTOM 1 -- Nicol...

Game 1 between Florida and Oklahoma will be starting momentarily. As we noted yesterday, we are guaranteed that, for the fifth year in a row, the champion will be either Florida (2014 and 2015 champions) or Oklahoma (2013 and 2016 champions). Florida will be the home team in tonight's opener... TOP 1 -- Florida's Kelly Barnhill easily retires the Sooners, including two strikeouts. BOTTOM 1 -- Paige Lowary, OU's fireball-throwing closer (approaching 75 mph on her pitches), is the surprise starter... Gators down in order... TOP 2 -- Uneventful again... BOTTOM 2 -- Interesting explanation by ESPN announcers of Sooners' defensive shift when Gators send up certain right-handed hitters. Basically, OU goes without a left-fielder, bringing her into the infield. Three infielders play to the right of second base and two play to the left of it... UF retired on three grounders... TOP 3 -- Still no baserunners... BOTTOM 3 -- With two outs, we have our first baserunner, a...

Florida is on to the championship round, having eliminated Washington by a 5-2 score. Oregon and Oklahoma are now playing, with the Sooners needing to beat the Ducks just once to advance, whereas Oregon would need to defeat Oklahoma twice... Even though Oklahoma is well-known as "OU" and Oregon as "UO," I'll refrain from using these abbreviations to avoid confusion... Game is scoreless, bottom 2, but the Sooners are threatening with runners at the corners and two outs... Grounder near second base leads to easy force-out to retire Oklahoma... Lauren Lindvall leads off top of third with double for Ducks, but popped-up bunt, fly-out, and short bloop caught by pitcher Paige Parker quickly ends half-inning... Single and stolen base give Ducks runner on second with one out, top 4... Infield pop for second out... Fly-out ends half-inning... Top 5: Danica Mercado drills two-run homer to right, making it 2-0 Ducks... Oklahoma lead-off batter in bottom half bunts, end...

"Survival Saturday" it's called, and the concept is simple: You lose today and you're done for the season. The first two games (Texas A&M-UCLA and Oregon-Baylor) involve teams who lost their opening WCWS games on Thursday. Each survivor of an early Saturday game will play again later today, against one of the Friday losers (LSU or Washington). To help follow the action, I have the following chart. Commentary on each of today's games will appear below the chart. No Losses One Loss Two Losses (Gone) Florida Texas A&M Texas A&M Oklahoma UCLA UCLA Oregon Baylor Baylor LSU LSU Washington HTML Tables Texas A&M is the first team going home, after its 8-2 loss to UCLA. The Bruins will face Washington sometime later today... Oregon leads Baylor 2-0 in today's second game, which is currently in a rain delay  , with Baylor scheduled to be batting in the bottom of the second. The Ducks seem to be coping OK ... It's now 3:45 pm Centr...

Two games today, both winners' bracket match-ups. In the opener, Florida and LSU are scoreless, with the Tigers batting in the bottom of the third... A walk, HBP, and double give the Gators a 2-0 lead , top 4... With two out, LSU botches play at first after grounder to pitcher. Batter safe, but when UF runner from second tries to score, she's thrown out at plate, ending half-inning. Replay suggests runner's hand might have gotten to plate before tag, but there are no replay appeals... Not much drama the rest of the way, as Florida wins 7-0 ... Oklahoma and Washington just underway, with the Huskies the home team... Top 2: Oklahoma scores runner from third on two-out bunt, giving Sooners 1-0 lead. Sure looks to me like OU runner went out of the baseline to get around catcher... Infield hit loads bases for Oklahoma... Force out at second ends Sooner threat... OU adds two singles to a U-Dub error in the top of the fifth, making it 2-0 Sooners... Teams trade solo homers in ...

Today features four opening-round games of the Women's College World Series. In three of these games, the teams are from the same conference: Florida vs. Texas A&M (both from the SEC), Oregon vs. Washington (both Pac 12), and Oklahoma vs. Baylor (both Big 12). The exception to all the intraconference play is the match-up of UCLA (Pac 12) and LSU (SEC). Florida is threatening to blow out Texas A&M, as the Gators lead 5-0 in the bottom of the fourth, and have runners at first and second with one out... Aleshia Ocasio promptly homers , making it 8-0... That score is the final, as Florida wins in run-rule fashion ... LSU has edged UCLA , 2-1, in the second game of the day... Washington bests Oregon , 3-1... And in the final game of the day, Oklahoma leads Baylor, 4-1, with the Sooners batting in the bottom of the second... Sooners close it out , 6-3. Was 6-1 OU entering Baylor (top) half of seventh and shaky Sooner infield defense helped Bears score a couple of runs.