Skip to main content

Weekend Wrap-Up for April 21-23, 2023

No. 1 Oklahoma avenged its only loss of the season -- a February 19 game against Baylor in a nonconference tournament -- by not only sweeping the Bears this weekend but not allowing a single run. The Sooners' three wins came by scores of 7-0, 4-0, and 2-0.

No. 7 Texas swept a three-game series from No. 3 Oklahoma State, with first-year Longhorn catcher Reese Atwood coming up with walk-off hits in Games 1 and 2. In Friday's series opener, Atwood's eighth-inning single drove home the game's only run, giving Texas a 1-0 victory. 

Then on Saturday, in the first game of a doubleheader, the Longhorns trailed 2-0 as they came up to bat in the bottom of the seventh. It was Atwood again, delivering a three-run bomb (video) to give Texas a 3-2 win. In both Friday's game and Saturday's first game, Cowgirl pitchers had taken no-hitters into the bottom of the seventh. Saturday's second game wasn't as dramatic, with UT completing the series sweep by a 5-2 score. The two Saturday games are summarized here.

***

The Big 10 (B1G) has experienced somewhat of a decline on the national softball stage, with No. 17 Northwestern being the highest-ranked team in the conference currently. Michigan, meanwhile, is unranked in Year 1 of the post-Carol Hutchins era. The Wolverines had shown some recent improvement, however, winning consecutive conference series over Nebraska, Illinois, and Purdue. This past weekend's Northwestern at Michigan series, during which UM's facility would be renamed Alumni Field at Carol Hutchins Stadium, would thus provide a good barometer on the Wolverines' progress this season. After the teams split the first two games -- Northwestern taking the opener 4-3 in 11 innings and Michigan storming back for a 15-0 rout in Game 2 -- the Wildcats took the decider, 3-0.

Popular posts from this blog

Pitching Star NiJaree Canady Reportedly in the Transfer Portal

Stanford pitching ace NiJaree Canady has reportedly entered the transfer portal ( link ), having completed two seasons in the circle for the Cardinal. Stanford has made the WCWS in both of Canady's seasons on the team. Another school hit hard by the transfer portal is the University of Washington, with an exodus of eight Huskies . This list of the top ten players in the portal includes four from UW. Today is the final day of the 30-day window for players to enter the portal.
Read more

NiJaree Canady Transferring to -- of All Places -- Texas Tech

NiJaree Canady, whose sub-1.00 ERA helped lead Stanford to the Women's College World Series in both her years with the Cardinal, announced on July 24 that she is transferring to Texas Tech. I've lived in Lubbock for 27 years and can say that the town has been improving with a greater selection of restaurants and shops, and a new downtown performing arts center. Likewise, nice new facilities have been dotting the Texas Tech campus . Still, it seems unlikely that Canady would have become a Red Raider without the $1 million annual Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deal for her, made possible by the donation of a Texas Tech alumni couple. So stunning an event is this, even in the ever-changing world of collegiate athletics, that the New York Times  even ran a behind-the-scenes story on Canady's path to Texas Tech. I look forward to being in the stands to watch Canady pitch next spring, an opportunity I never expected to have.
Read more

2024 WCWS -- Day 6

Oklahoma has kept its quest for a fourth straight WCWS title alive with a 6-5 eight-inning win over Florida to advance to the championship round. The Sooners will take on Texas in a two-out-of-three series beginning Wednesday night. Florida held a 5-2 lead after three innings and looked well on its way to beating OU for the second straight day, which would have eliminated the Sooners and taken the Gators to the final round. However, UF scored no further runs, whereas Oklahoma chipped away with two in the fourth, one in the sixth, and one in the eighth. The final run came via Jayda Coleman's opposite-field walk-off home run to lead off the bottom of the eighth.  Sooner starter Kelly Maxwell went the distance, allowing only four hits. Three of those hits were home runs within the first three innings; the only other Gator hit was an infield single in the top of the sixth. Maxwell also walked five and struck out eight. Florida starter Keagan Rothrock also went the distance, allowing 1...
Read more