Friday's docket consists of two elimination games.  The first team to be heading home is Duke, a 2-1 loser to Alabama. This solo-shot by the Crimson Tide's Marlie Giles in T6 broke a 1-1 tie and ended up being the difference. Oklahoma State and Stanford next... Cardinal up 1-0 T2, as Ava Gall gets all ball , and blasts it to right... Now 4-0 Stanford after four complete innings, as the Cardinal offense, anemic for much of the season, has gotten five hits so far (including another home run, this by Kaitlyn Lim ) and driven Cowgirl ace Lexi Kilfoyl out of the circle after 3 2/3 innings... T5, Stanford with four singles and two runs so far off of OSU reliever Ivy Rosenberry, making it 6-0. Cardinal currently with runners on second and third with two outs... 8-0 Stanford is your final... Oklahoma State, known for its power hitting, goes home not only without a win in this year's WCWS, but also without scoring a run (having lost its opener to Florida, 1-0)...

Florida takes the nightcap with a 1-0 win over Oklahoma State... Katie Kistler's B5 solo-shot down the right-field line, almost to the refreshment stand behind the fence ( video ) is all the Gators need... Teagan Kavan's one-hitter led Texas to a 4-0 victory over Stanford... Oklahoma briefly fell behind Duke 1-0 in the second inning, but the Sooners roared back with 4 in the third inning, 3 in the fourth, and 2 in the sixth for a 9-1 run-rule victory ... This year's Women's College World Series will have a late start. The opening game between Alabama and UCLA, scheduled for 11:00 am Central, is currently in a rain delay... It has just been announced that the game will start at 12:36 Central... Alabama-UCLA underway... Tide with a one-out infield single in T1, on grounder up the middle (possibly deflected by pitcher) that did not allow middle infielders enough time to get the batter at first... Next two Bama batters go quietly... B1, Bruins get runner to second with one...

ESPN.com has an amazing preview of the 2024 Women's College World Series ( link ). The article contains in-depth analyses of all eight teams, plus every kind of statistical graphic you can imagine. One set of statistics stood out to me: Oklahoma's offensive output this year is almost identical to what it was last year, but the Sooners' pitching has come down a notch since last year. For example, OU has allowed 1.8 runs per game this season compared to 1.0 a year ago, and has struck out 23.4% of opposing batters this year as opposed to 31.3% last year.

A lot of softball today, as five of the eight super-regional series are going to a decisive Game 3.,, The SEC conceivably could send five teams to the Women's College World Series. One is guaranteed (the Tennessee-Alabama winner), with Texas A&M, Florida, Missouri, and LSU potentially making it also. The Big 12 could send up to four with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State already having qualified and Texas and Baylor playing today...  [ Update: The Big 12 will have three teams in the WCWS in Texas, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State; the Pac-12 (UCLA, Stanford) and SEC (Florida, Alabama) will each have two; and Duke will represent the ACC.] Stanford-LSU about to get started... Stanford gets an 8-0, six-inning run-rule win, punctuated by this walk-off homer ... Texas-Texas A&M getting underway... T1, the Aggies' Trinity Cannon continues her slugging ways, this time with a double that drives in the game's first run... B2, with one out and runner on first, Longhorns' Katie St...

Two games have been completed on Saturday afternoon and, in both cases, the team needing a win to survive got one. Baylor beat Florida, 5-2, and Missouri defeated Duke, 3-1, forcing decisive Game-3 matchups on Sunday... For Baylor, Shaylon Govan's three-run blast in the bottom of the first ( video ) produced more runs than Florida scored the entire game (2), but the Bears added single runs in the second and sixth for some cushion... Mizzou scored all three of its runs in T4, based on three consecutive singles and a Duke throwing error on the third single that allowed not only the runner from second but also the runner from first to score and enabled the batter to go all the way to third (from which she scored on a later at-bat)...  Stanford shuts out LSU 3-0 to force a deciding game tomorrow. The Cardinal's NiJaree Canady rebounds from her poor outing Friday night to record a gem (7.0 innings pitched, 9 strikeouts, allowing only 2 hits and 3 walks). Oklahoma State opens up T1 ...

All eight super-regional series are in action today (see table below). Oklahoma and UCLA will be looking to close out their respective series after each taking a 1-0 lead last night. Oklahoma leading Florida State 4-2, as Seminoles down to their final at-bats B7... Two down... Game over, sending Sooners to Women's College World Series. UCLA leading Georgia 1-0 T1. After scoring their run, Bruins had bases loaded with one out but couldn't pad their lead... Bulldogs with runners on first and second with one out in B1... With two out, UGA singles to right-center with ball just eluding Bruin 2B-person, tying game 1-1. No further scoring in the inning... UCLA back up, 2-1, T2 on some small ball (single, runner bunted to second, single)... Bruin lead up to 4-1 on Sharlize Palacios two-run dinger in T4... Now 5-1 UCLA T5... Your final is 6-1, as the Bruins return to the WCWS. LSU leads Stanford 3-1 after one complete... Now 6-1 Tigers in T5 after Ali Newland three-run blast... Maci B...

The 2024 super-regionals get underway tonight, with two series: Oklahoma-Florida State and UCLA-Georgia ( full timetable ). The winner of each two-out-of-three series advances to the Women's College World Series. I'll update the results in the table below and comment on the games over the weekend... UCLA-Georgia:  Maya Brady with leadoff homer for the Bruins B1, making it 1-0 UCLA ( video )... Brady adds another home run, plus a double , as the Bruins beat the Bulldogs 8-0 via run-rule (six innings). Oklahoma-Florida State: Tiare Jennings gives OU 1-0 lead B1 with a home run ( video )... After Alynah Torres doubles in a run B2 to make it 2-0 Sooners, FSU's Devyn Flaherty singles in two T3 to tie the game, 2-2... Alyssa Brito leads off B3 with solo shot to give OU back the lead, 3-2... Seminole throwing error on bunt with OU runners on first and second leads to another Sooner run, now 4-2, B3... Now 5-2 Oklahoma... Sooners' lead up to 10-3 B5... Final score is 11-3 OU v...

One of the most dramatic moments of this weekend's regional play occurred in Sunday's second game between Baylor and No. 13 seed Louisiana-Lafayette. The Bears had shut out the Ragin' Cajuns 8-0 on Saturday, but ULL returned the favor (and then some) with a 13-0 blanking of Baylor in Sunday's early game. That necessitated an additional, winner-take-all, game between the teams to advance to the super-regionals.  In this final game, Baylor held a 4-3 lead as ULL came up to bat in the bottom of the seventh. With two outs, the Ragin' Cajuns drew a walk. This created a situation known as a " Golden Pitch ," where on any of the upcoming pitches, either team conceivably could win the regional. If ULL could hit a homer on the next pitch, it would win the game 5-4 and thus the regional. However, if Baylor could record an out on the next pitch, it would win the game 4-3 and the regional.* Other scenarios (e.g., a ULL walk or hit other than a home run) would keep the...

SATURDAY NIGHT The surprise elimination game between No. 7 seed Missouri and Washington (resulting from both teams losing to Nebraska-Omaha) is now underway. Mizzou (as the home team in this game) leads 1-0 in the top of the third... Jenna Laird's solo shot increases the Tigers' lead to 2-0, B3... T5: Back-to-back two-out singles (the second one fairly deep) give the Huskies their first run, cutting deficit to 2-1... Fly out to right ends threat... B5 Mizzou rally increases its lead to 4-1... Huskies down to their final three outs as they bat in the top of the seventh... A quick 1-2-3 half-inning sends U-Dub back to Seattle... No. 13 Louisiana-Lafayette, having lost earlier today to Baylor, is in a struggle to stay alive, tied 1-1 with Princeton, who is batting in the bottom of the seventh... A triple and a sac-fly put ULL ahead 2-1 in the top of the eighth and Princeton goes quietly in the bottom half... Ragin' Cajuns survive... No. 12 Arkansas and Villanova are only in th...

With the NCAA women's softball brackets being announced last Sunday night, I'm back once again with my annual geospatial maps of the 64 teams' assignments to the 16 four-team regional sites. Each site is hosted by one of the 16 nationally seeded teams, with three outside teams coming in. These are depicted in the maps below (each map shows only a few different regionals, to reduce clutter). Starting times for all games are available by clicking here and then scrolling down when the new page comes up. This year's No. 1 seed is Texas, which will have three northern teams (Northwestern, St. Francis [Pennsylvania], and Siena [New York]) coming to Austin. This is the Longhorn program's first time ever as the national top seed. No. 2 is three-time defending Women's College World Series winner Oklahoma, also with three northern teams coming in (Oregon, Cleveland State, and Boston University). The Longhorns (23-4 in conference) edged out the Sooners (22-5) for the Bi...

Oklahoma State took two-of-three from Bedlam rival Oklahoma in Norman this weekend to close out the regular season. It was OSU's first series win at OU since 1993 ! The Cowgirls won the first two games of the series by scores of 6-3 and 6-2 , respectively, before the Sooners salvaged the finale, 8-2 . Jilyen Poullard, Karli Godwin, and Micaela Wark swatted homers for OSU in Friday's series-opener, with Poullard and Wark repeating as home-run hitters on Saturday. Caroline Wang and Claire Timm also homered for the Cowgirls in Game 2. OU's series loss allowed Texas to squeeze by the Sooners for the Big 12 regular-season title (UT finishing 23-4, OU 22-5, and OSU 21-6). --- Tennessee won its second straight SEC regular-season title this weekend, with the Vols (19-5) sweeping Kentucky .   ... Per the SEC Network/ESPN baseball/softball show "Rally Cap," Alabama's 10-14 conference record marked the first time the Crimson Tide has ever had a losing conference recor...