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2023 NCAA Tournament -- Day 1

Tournament action will shortly be underway. During the first two days, I tend to focus on upsets. As teams begin to be eliminated, I will be adding charts to document which teams are still alive... NCAA.com has a nice page consisting of tournament scores, schedules, and links...

How's this for an upset? No. 2 seed UCLA falls at home to Grand Canyon, 3-2 (play-by-play sheet). All of the Antelopes' runs come on a three-run shot by Madison Schaefer in the fourth inning (video), giving GCU a 3-1 lead at the time. Megan Grant was part of both Bruin runs, singling one home in the bottom of the third and delivering a solo homer in the bottom of the fifth. Then, in the bottom of the seventh, with UCLA having a runner on base and Grant thus representing the winning run at the plate, GCU gets her to pop up for the final out (video). The Bruins are still alive under the double-elimination format, but have no room for error from this point on in the regional...

No shockers thus far [written before Grand Canyon-UCLA], but No. 8 Duke had a closer game with George Mason than many would have expected. Ana Gold's homer in the bottom of the sixth (video) put the Blue Devils up 2-1 and that ended up being the final score...

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