Skip to main content

WCWS Day 2 (2017)

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 the sixth --  Sydney Romero for OU in the top half, Ali Aguilar for UW in the bottom half -- yielding a 3-1 Sooner lead heading to the seventh... Huskies get a runner on in bottom half, but OU "turns the Paige" (from Parker to Lowary) to stymie UW. Lowary, hitting 74 mph on some of her pitches, gets final two outs of 3-1 OU victory.

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...
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

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 .
Read more