Alan's College Softball Blog

2012-01-24T21:49:00.000-08:00

ESPN.com college softball writer Graham Hays is previewing what he considers the top 20 teams of the upcoming season, with a new article in countdown fashion each day. You can click here to see his piece on No. 20 Syracuse. Adjacent to this article, you'll see a box in which you can click links to his articles on the No. 19, No. 18, etc., teams. As of now he is up to the No. 14 team (Michigan).

2012-01-19T22:01:00.000-08:00

Missouri, which has one foot out the door en route to the SEC, is a narrow favorite to win this year's Big 12 championship, according to the league's preseason coaches' poll. Oklahoma is only slightly below Mizzou. Here are the full poll results:

Team (first-place votes) Points

1. Missouri (3) 59
2. Oklahoma (4) 56
3. Texas (1) 50
4. Baylor 45
5. Texas A&M 37
6. Oklahoma State 32
7. Texas Tech 22
8. Kansas 13
9. Iowa State 10

2011-07-22T00:13:00.000-07:00

The Los Angeles Times has an article on the state of women's professional softball, such as it is. Many players who would be familiar from their college softball days are quoted.

2011-06-17T18:20:00.000-07:00

Some off-season developments...

The search for a new LSU softball coach has taken on some drama. As I learned over at Ultimate College Softball, Alabama coach Patrick Murphy had accepted the position, but then pulled back. LSU's Athletic Director seems none too pleased. Movement of coaches within the same conference always has the potential to be awkward, as the departed coach must compete against his or her old team with greater frequency than when the move is out of conference. The abandoned school may also feel that it helped nurture and develop the coach, only to have him or her jump to a major rival. For reasons along these lines, many schools put language into contracts to forbid a coach from moving directly to another school in the same conference. Having failed at an attempted intra-conference shift, LSU appears to be back to square one.

[UPDATE: LSU has hired Florida International coach Beth Torina.]

ESPN.com's "Rise" section on up-and-coming high school prospects ranks the Top 10 college-softball recruiting classes (via Ultimate College Softball). No surprises, really. All 10 of the listed schools either were in this year's Women's College World Series or have been in recent years.

2011-06-07T17:27:00.000-07:00

CONGRATULATIONS TO ARIZONA STATE ON WINNING THE 2011 WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES!

Florida struck first in Game 2 of the Women's College World Series championship round, with a run in the bottom of the first. The lead didn't last long, as Arizona State plated three in the top of the second. The Sun Devils gradually pulled away over the course of the evening, ultimately winning 7-2.

ESPN announcer Beth Mowins noted a few times toward the end that the Pac 10 had won 23 of the 30 WCWS titles. The conference's domination over roughly the last decade is even more pronounced, with 10 of the last 11 titles -- including ASU in 2008 and 2011 -- being won by Pac 10 teams (the one exception was Michigan in 2005).

The SEC remains without an NCAA softball title, despite three recent trips to the final round (Tennessee, 2007; Florida, 2009, 2011). One of these years, I'm sure, an SEC team will win it all.

2011-06-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

Game 1 of the Women's College World Series championship series is underway. Arizona State takes a 1-0 lead over Florida in the bottom of the first inning, on a walk and a single that is misplayed by the center-fielder and goes to the wall.

Punctuated by a three-run homer from Krista Donnenworth, ASU adds 6 more runs in the second, to go up 7-0. The Sun Devil batters have been able to foul off Gator pitcher Hannah Rogers's strikes to keep at-bats alive and draw walks. If not doing that, ASU has been able to hit it where the Gator outfielders ain't.

If anyone's still following, it's now 10-0 Sun Devils.

Your final: 14-4 Sun Devils. ASU is now one win away from the championship.

If this year's Florida team is going to win the first NCAA softball title by an SEC school, it's going to take one heck of a comeback!

2011-06-05T12:37:00.000-07:00

Florida has routed Alabama for the second time today, 9-2, to make the championship series against Arizona State. The two-out-of-three final round begins Monday night. Even though ASU is undefeated in the Women's College World Series and Florida has one loss, the slate is wiped clean heading into the final series. Neither team will be a stranger to the championship series, as ASU won the NCAA title in 2008 and Florida lost in the 2009 final to Washington.

Arizona State has defeated Baylor, 4-0, to eliminate the Bears and move into the championship round. ASU will meet the winner of tonight's Alabama-Florida showdown.

Baylor accomplished an ususual feat. It scored zero runs -- zilch, nada, bupkis -- in regulation play during four games of the Women's College World Series, yet it won two games! The way it happened, of course, was that the Bears won two extra-inning affairs. Baylor won its opener over Oklahoma State, 1-0, with a walk-off homer in the eighth inning, then got skunked by Alabama, 3-0. Then came another overtime 1-0 win, in 13 innings over Missouri, before Baylor's ultimate elimination today, 4-0 at the hands of ASU. Baylor's final numbers: 0 runs in 28 innings of regulation play, and 2 runs in 35 innings total.

Florida has opened up Sunday play with a bang, scoring 11 runs in the first inning against Alabama and finishing off the Tide, 16-2, in a run-rule-shortened five innings. The teams will have a rematch tonight, with the winner making it to the championship series.

Here is the final version of the loss chart from all WCWS play leading up to the final championship series, where again, the slates are wiped clean...

No Losses	One Loss	Two Losses (Gone)
Arizona State	Florida	Oklahoma State
...	...	Oklahoma
...	...	Cal
...	...	Missouri
...	...	Baylor
...	...	Alabama

HTML Tables

2011-06-04T11:38:00.000-07:00

Baylor's Holly Holl has homered right around midnight Central to give her team a 1-0, 13-inning win over Missouri, sending the Tigers home. Baylor moves on to a Sunday semifinal match-up with Arizona State, with the Sun Devils needing one win to make the championship round and the Bears, two.

Florida ousts Cal, 5-2, setting up an all-SEC semifinal Sunday between the Gators and Alabama. Bama just needs one win to advance to the championship round, whereas Florida needs two.

Softball fans in the Oklahoma City area had the unique opportunity to see both of the state's Big 12 schools -- the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State -- come to town for the Women's College World Series. Alas, the two local schools are the first to be eliminated from the WCWS, with OU's 4-1 loss to Missouri (see chart below).

The first team has been eliminated from the Women's College World Series, namely Oklahoma State, which has lost to Cal, 6-2. The Golden Bears will take on Florida tonight in another elimination game.

Missouri leads Oklahoma 1-0 early on, in the second game of "Survival Saturday." The winner will face Baylor later.

The WCWS is all about losses -- you get to keep playing until you lose two. Accordingly, I'm introducing the loss chart, as follows...

No Losses	One Loss	Two Losses (Gone)
Alabama (A)	Florida (A)	Oklahoma State
Arizona State (B)	Baylor (B)	Oklahoma
...	...	Cal
...	...	Missouri

Teams with the same letter will be playing each other.

HTML Tables

2011-06-03T18:38:00.000-07:00

Arizona State has just edged Florida, 6-5, with a two-out, bases loaded shot that got through the Gator third-base person. ASU took an early 4-0 lead, but its frosh pitcher Dallas Escobedo struggled in the top of the fourth, giving up five runs (including a pair of two-run homers). The ESPN announcers suggested that Escobedo was telegraphing her change-up by doing something different with her arm motion than when she threw faster pitches. The Sun Devils tied the game 5-5 in the bottom of the fourth and then there was no more scoring until the bottom of the seventh.

Alabama has defeated Baylor, 3-0, in the opener of tonight's "Winners' Bracket Friday" of the Women's College World Series. It is the second straight shut-out for Tide pitching.

The Big 12 conference has garnered attention for sending four teams to the WCWS. All four have now suffered a loss and must play on "Survival Saturday," when all games are in the losers' bracket of the double-elimination tournament. One Big 12 team is guaranteed to be sent home early on, as Missouri and Oklahoma play each other (Saturday, 2:30 Eastern). The winner will then get Baylor ~~Florida~~ (Saturday night, 9:30). On the other side of the losers' bracket, Oklahoma State will face Cal (Saturday, noon), with the winner playing Florida ~~Baylor~~ at 7:00 pm Saturday.

2011-06-02T15:35:00.000-07:00

Runs came more readily as the evening moved along, with Florida knocking off Missouri, 6-2, in the nightcap. Friday's action will feature the two winners' bracket games, Florida vs. ASU and Alabama vs. Baylor.

In a relative slugfest (compared to the afternoon session), top-seeded Arizona State has topped Oklahoma, 3-1, to open up the evening session.

I had a busy day at the office, so I could only follow the opening afternoon session of the Women's College World Series sparingly. Runs were extremely hard to come by at the WCWS, with Alabama defeating Cal and Baylor beating Oklahoma State, both by 1-0 scores. In fact, Cal was limited to just one hit!

2011-06-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

Before the Women's College World Series gets underway tomorrow, I wanted to revisit a story that ended with Arizona's elimination in the super-regionals at the hands of Oklahoma. Arizona senior catcher Stacie Chambers had been seeking the all-time NCAA Division I softball record for home runs in a career, held by former UCLA catcher Stacey Nuveman at 90. Nuveman played for the Bruins from 1997-2002.

Chambers, who overcame a head injury suffered in fall practice of her first year at U of A, entered the 2011 season with 67 homers (21 as a junior, 31 as a sophomore, and 15 as a freshman). She thus needed 23 to tie Nuveman and 24 (or more) to pass her. As it happened, Chambers hit 20 dingers this year to finish her collegiate career with 87, three shy of Nuveman's mark, but in possession of the Wildcat school record, which had been 85.

Chambers hit three homers in last year's World Series championship round against UCLA, seemingly giving her momentum heading into this season. I was curious as to where Chambers fell short this season, so I created the following graphic to document her at-bats and homers game-by-game (you may click on the graphic to enlarge it).

I acknowledge that the chart is pretty "busy," as I sometimes get carried away with graphic arts! If you follow the chart in the same direction one would run the bases, a few key points are evident:

*Chambers's home runs this year (depicted by the home plate icons) tended to occur in bunches.

*The homers occurred to a large degree (but not entirely) against teams that were not from power conferences.

*Her quest for the all-time record was put in jeopardy by a midseason stretch (starting with Game 3 of the Baylor series) that spanned 18 games and 54 official at-bats (e.g., not including walks), but included only two homers.

The fact that Arizona missed the WCWS this year -- for only the second time in the last 24 years -- also obviously harmed Chambers's chances. A World Series appearance would have guaranteed the Wildcats at least two more games and potentially several more, thus giving Chambers some additional cracks at the home-run record.

Ultimately, however, Chambers missed out, not just on the overall career home-run record, but also on the record for most home runs by someone named Stacey/Stacie/Stacy.

2011-05-31T15:35:00.001-07:00

ESPN.com's Graham Hays is out with his preview of the Women's College World Series.

2011-05-25T14:42:00.000-07:00

Here are the match-ups for the super-regionals, which begin tomorrow. I will update the table as the results come in (links are to game articles).

Teams	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3
Texas A&M (16) at ASU (1)	ASU	ASU	---
Stanford (15) at Alabama (2)	Stanford	Alabama	Alabama
Houston at Oklahoma St.	Okla. St.	Houston	Okla. St.
Oregon (13) at Florida (4)	Florida	Florida	---
Washington (12) at Missouri (5)	Missouri	Missouri	---
Baylor (11) at Georgia (6)	Baylor	Georgia	Baylor
Cal (7) at Kentucky	Cal	Kentucky	Cal
Oklahoma (9) at Arizona (8)	Oklahoma	Oklahoma	---

HTML Tables

2011-05-22T00:49:00.000-07:00

The table below tells the story heading into today's play -- who needs just one win to advance to the super-regionals, and who needs two. Numbers in parentheses refer to teams' seedings. If a team needing two wins gets its first win, I will put an asterisk (*) by that team. I am also adding links to articles about teams winning their regionals, in the far right column.

Regional	Needs 1 win	Needs 2 wins	Champion
Tempe AZ	Arizona State (1)	San Diego State	Arizona State
Tuscaloosa AL	Alabama (2)	Chattanooga	Alabama
Austin TX	Houston	Louisiana-Lafayette	Houston
Gainesville FL	Florida (4)	UCLA*	Florida
Columbia MO	DePaul	Missouri (5)*	Missouri
Athens GA	Georgia (6)	Florida State	Georgia
Louisville KY	California (7)	Louisville	California
Tucson AZ	Arizona (8)	Texas Tech	Arizona
Norman OK	Oklahoma (9)	Tulsa*	Oklahoma
Ann Arbor MI	Kentucky	Michigan (10)	Kentucky
College Park MD	Baylor (11)	East Carolina	Baylor
Seattle WA	N/A	N/A	Washington (12)
State College PA	Oregon (13)	Penn State	Oregon
Knoxville TN	Oklahoma State	Tennessee (14)	Oklahoma State
Palo Alto CA	Stanford (15)	Nebraska	Stanford
College Station TX	Texas A&M (16)	LSU	Texas A&M

HTML Tables

2011-05-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

The seeded teams have been holding their own, for the most part, thus far. However, No. 10 seed Michigan has lost to Kentucky, 7-6, in early Saturday play. The Wolverines' furious comeback attempt from a 7-0 deficit, consisting of a run in the sixth and 5 in the seventh, fell just short. I'll be posting occasional updates throughout the weekend.

In other play early Saturday, UCLA jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead over No. 4 seed Florida, but the Gators came back for a 4-2 victory.

As Saturday's play unfolds, things are not going so well for the national seeds, after all. In addition to the Michigan loss...

Houston scored a run in the first against No. 3 seed Texas, and made it hold up in a 1-0 victory.

Oklahoma State has just spanked No. 14 Tennessee, 6-1.

DePaul has outlasted No. 5 Missouri, 2-1, in 11 innings.

As Saturday's play moved toward early evening, Michigan seemed virtually certain to be the first seeded team to be shown the door. Having already lost to Kentucky earlier in the day, the Wolverines trailed Notre Dame 8-3 after 5 1/2 innings. However, Michigan rallied for 6 runs in the bottom of the sixth and held off a Fighting Irish threat in the top of the seventh (runner on third with one out) to remain alive, 9-8. It's now Kentucky and Michigan for the regional championship on Sunday, with the Wildcats only needing to win once and the Wolverines, twice.

Now, it looks as if the dubious distinction of being the first seeded team to be eliminated may fall upon the University of Texas, as the Longhorns trail Louisiana-Lafayette 5-0. Update: Yep, Texas is gone, with a 5-3 loss to ULL.

No. 12 Washington, whose regional started a day before all the others, has become the first team to win a regional and advance to next weekend's super-regionals. The Huskies knocked off BYU today, 7-5.

LINK TO SATURDAY SCOREBOARD

2011-05-20T07:26:00.000-07:00

As visitors to this site over the past month are probably aware, I ran a little non-scientific poll on who you all thought should be the favorite to win the Women's College World Series. With the bulk of the NCAA tournament getting underway today, it's time to look at the final poll results...

Arizona State, No. 1 in the NCAA seeding and in the media/coaches polls, came in first in our reader poll, garnering nearly 30% of the 175 votes cast. Second place was "Other," with nearly 20% of the vote. I have no way of knowing for sure which specific teams voters were thinking of when they selected "Other." Likely candidates would seem to be Missouri (No. 5 seed) and Cal (No. 7 seed). Michigan and Alabama were the only other teams to receive at least 10% of readers' votes.

The NCAA website's softball section has both a scoreboard and a brackets page available for following tournament action. Over at Lateral Sports, you can look up and connect to Internet coverage of your favorite team, whether it be by video, audio, or gametracker.

2011-05-19T07:34:00.000-07:00

The NCAA tournament begins today, with the Seattle region (Washington, Portland State, Auburn, and BYU). This regional is starting a day earlier than the other 15, apparently to accommodate BYU's school policy of not competing on Sundays.

The host Huskies, a participant in the last two Women's College World Series and 2009 national champions, started off the 2011 season 20-0 and rose to as high as No. 4 in the national rankings. However, their non-conference schedule was not of the highest difficulty. U-Dub went on to compile a 9-12 record in the Pac 10, yielding a No. 12 seed for the NCAA tourney.

Auburn recently made some noise by upsetting highly ranked Florida in the SEC tournament. BYU played a number of nationally ranked teams during the season, going 5-8. The Cougars have won 26 of their last 28 games, playing against Mountain West Conference opponents and non-conference teams from the immediate region (e.g., Southern Utah, Utah Valley, Idaho State).

NOTES...

I wanted to pass along a message I received yesterday from Joe Bleymaier, co-founder of Lateral Sports. This free website allows fans of all college sports to look up -- and connect to -- whatever Internet coverage is available for their favorite teams on a given day, whether it be by video, audio, or gametracker. Here's a direct link to Lateral's softball page.

Michele Smith, a TV analyst for ESPN and a dominating pitcher in her day, joins with ESPN.com writer Dave Scheiber to evaluate this year's top collegiate pitchers.

[Updated early Thursday evening.]

Annual Geo-Spatial NCAA Tourney Travel Map

2011-05-16T00:18:00.000-07:00

At roughly four hours post-announcement of the NCAA tournament brackets (which translates to 1:30 a.m. Central), this is one of my fastest turnarounds for posting my annual geo-spatial bracket! Unless you have some really fine eyesight, you are urged to click on the map to enlarge it.

Each clustering shows the teams playing in a given region, shaded in the color of the host school (the home team is also underlined). I would say 15 of the 16 regions are geographically compact, to one extent or another. Only one regional, which I am calling the "super-jumbled" regional, is really a grab-bag, sending No. 7-seeded Cal to Louisville, along with Illinois-Chicago and Jacksonville State (Alabama); these teams are seen as red blocks.

I would say the Alabama (No. 2 seed), Texas (No. 3), Missouri (No. 5), Georgia (No. 6), and (arguably) the Michigan (No. 10) regionals are extremely compact. There are several others, such as the Florida (No. 4) and Stanford (No. 15) regions, in which three of the schools are located pretty close to each other and the fourth is coming from great distance.

As a Michigan alum, let me state my beef with the seedings from the outset. The Wolverines were typically ranked at (or around) No. 2 in the national polls in the closing weeks of the regular season. Yet, the Maize and Blue ended up with a No. 10 seed! What do Arizona State (No. 1 seed) and Arizona (No. 8) have in common this season? They were both beaten by Michigan. OK, the Big 10 was down this year and the Wolverines had a few bad non-conference losses. But a 10 seed?

Also noteworthy (although not necessarily undeserved) is UCLA being completely unseeded, which I assume is the first time that's ever happened. With 24 appearances in the Women's College World Series and 11 NCAA national championships, it must be quite a shock for the Bruins to be considered almost as an afterthought by the commitee. We'll see if they can pull a surprise in the Florida regional.

[Credit: The map onto which I superimposed the softball teams is known as a cartogram, which adjusts the sizes of states or other jurisdictions from their usual sizes and boundaries to reflect other characteristics, such as population. I used this cartogram, which is based on each state's number of electoral votes in the 2008 presidential election.]

2011-05-15T13:25:00.000-07:00

Texas loses to Baylor, giving Missouri the outright Big 12 championship. Waiting for tonight's selection show!

2011-05-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

Cal has beaten Arizona, 6-3, this afternoon to take two out of three in the series and finish in second place (15-6) in the Pac 10. Arizona State had clinched the conference title Thursday night.

Talking about clinching conference titles, Michigan (18-2) did the same in the Big 10, with Jordan Taylor pitching a run-rule-shortened no-hitter over intrastate rival Michigan State.

The Big 12 championship is up in the air, with Texas and Missouri tied with 14-3 records at the moment. Mizzou won the first game of a doubleheader today over Iowa State, and is leading the second game 6-0 after three innings. Texas hosts Baylor Sunday.

In the SEC, which is the only major conference to still decide its champion by tournament, Tennessee and Georgia square-off in the final (7:00 pm Central, ESPN and online at ESPN3). UPDATE: Tennessee has won the SEC tourney, 6-5 in eight innings.

2011-05-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

Blogger.com, the hosting site for this blog, was down from late Thursday night to Friday afternoon, thus preventing me from doing updates Thursday night.

Suffice it to say that the major story of the SEC tournament's opening day on Thursday was Auburn's upset of Florida, which under the single-elimination format, eliminates the Gators from conference-championship contention. The other Thursday winners were Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. The SEC website's "Tournament Central" is available here, for following the remainder of the event.

Thursday night in the Pac 10, Arizona and Cal battled through 10 innings, with the host U of A prevailing, 2-1. The Wildcats' Kenzie Fowler and Golden Bears' Jolene Henderson both pitched complete games. Arizona needed a two-out, game-tying hit in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings.

2011-05-12T12:42:00.000-07:00

There's a lot of action on America's college softball fields today through Saturday, with very few games on Sunday. Presumably, this schedule is meant to allow the NCAA selection committee to complete its Sunday work in advance of that night's announcement of the brackets, with minimal distraction from ongoing games.

The SEC tournament (which is the only tourney among major conferences) is already underway. Tennessee has eliminated Kentucky in the opener (with a single-elimination format), and Auburn came up with three early runs against Florida. SEC tournament action is receiving wall-to-wall coverage this weekend on the ESPN family of networks.

One of the more interesting series beginning tonight is a three-game set featuring No. 5/6 Cal at No. 10/10 Arizona. The Wildcats showed some signs of rebounding last weekend at UCLA from what had thus far been a disappointing season, with the return of pitcher Kenzie Fowler and some renewed offensive spark leading U of A to wins in two of three games against the Bruins. Against Cal, the Wildcats can show if their late-season improvement is for real. Also, here's a nice article on U of A's record-setting attendance (discovered via Ultimate College Softball).

I'll be updating scores throughout the weekend, so please check back periodically!

2011-05-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

With the NCAA selections coming up Sunday night, a recent discussion thread on Ultimate College Softball reminded me of how the tournament seedings don't always match up with the media/coaches' poll rankings. I thus decided to make the following chart, which compares the past three years' final regular-season ESPN.com/USA Softball poll rankings (which I chose based on their nice archiving; see 2010, 2009, and 2008) and NCAA tournament seedings (2010, 2009, 2008). You can click on the chart to enlarge it.

As can be seen, I divided teams into three categories: comparably high in the poll rankings and NCAA seedings (+/- 1 of each other); seeded markedly higher than their poll rankings; and seeded markedly lower than their poll rankings. At the very top levels, the seedings and poll rankings tracked very well in 2008 and 2009, but much less so last year.

Though we obviously have a small sample, it seems that of the two, poll rankings may be a better indicator of likely tournament success than the seedings. Most notably, the 2008 Arizona State squad that won the Women's College World Series was ranked No. 2 in the poll, but only seeded sixth. That same year, Virginia Tech, which made a surprise appearance in the WCWS, had a poll ranking of 16th (potentially warranting a No. 16 seed), but was unseeded. Louisiana-Lafayette, another surprise 2008 WCWS participant, was ranked 17th, but unseeded.

Arizona, which made the final championship series last year against UCLA, had its finish better forecasted by its No. 6 poll ranking than its 10 seeding. The Wildcats were also seeded somewhat worse than their ranking in 2009.

One team, the University of Georgia, was seeded more favorably than its final regular-season poll position would warrant in all of the past three seasons.

Some have suggested that the RPI rankings, a computer-based system that takes into account teams' strength of schedule, have informed the NCAA seedings more strongly than the weekly polls (here supposedly are last year's RPI rankings).

I don't claim to know all that is going on. But, as you're watching the Selection Show, don't be surprised to see your favorite team seeded higher or lower than what you may have been expecting based on the polls!

2011-05-08T16:01:00.000-07:00

Florida completed a sweep today of Tennessee, closing out the series with a 7-2 victory. No. 1 Arizona State did the same to Washington. In other series we were looking at, two other teams had their brooms out today, but couldn't pull off the sweep.

Missouri managed a split with Texas, whereas UCLA salvaged one game out of three vs. Arizona. It was good to see U of A's Kenzie Fowlie back in the pitching circle after her concussion injury.

Elsewhere, Northwestern ended Indiana's 15-game winning streak (13 wins of which were in Big 10 play). Michigan (16-2) now clings to a one-game conference lead over the Hoosiers (15-3). The Wolverines conclude the regular season next weekend with a Friday-Saturday home-and-home series vs. Michigan State, whereas Indiana hosts Purdue in a doubleheader next Saturday.

Among the major conferences, only the SEC still has a conference tournament.

2011-05-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

There appear to be two marquee series this weekend. In a three-game set beginning late this afternoon, Tennessee (No. 3/5 in the two national polls) visits Florida (4/6). The Saturday and Sunday games will be televised on the ESPN family of networks.

Over in Columbia, Missouri, No. 8/9 Mizzou hosts No. 3/4 Texas in a two-game series, Saturday and Sunday. The latter game will be on ESPN.

In most years, a three-game series between Arizona and UCLA would qualify as "marquee." This year, however, both teams have fallen out of the Top 10, so the Friday-through-Sunday series in Westwood can probably best be seen as an opportunity for one of the teams to jump-start its season.

Other Pac 10 series include: No.1 Arizona State at Washington, Cal at Oregon State, and Stanford at Oregon. All six of these teams, except Oregon State, are nationally ranked.

2011-05-03T16:43:00.000-07:00

The latest column from ESPN.com's Graham Hays is primarily about the success of the Georgia Tech program. What I found more interesting, however, are the notes underneath the main column, in which Hays discusses several teams that either seem to be on the rise (Cal, Oregon, Auburn, Boise State, Oklahoma State, Long Beach State, and Indiana) or floundering (UCLA, Arizona, Georgia, and Baylor) as the NCAA tournament approaches.

Regarding Arizona, pitching ace Kenzie Fowler has been out since getting hit by a batted ball while in the dugout and suffering a concussion, a couple of Sundays ago. To some extent, the Wildcats' recent five-game losing streak -- three straight to Arizona State and two to Oregon, all in Tucson -- might be attributable to diminished pitching depth. However, U of A was shut out twice during the stretch, which of course cannot be blamed on the pitching staff.

2011-04-27T12:45:00.000-07:00

No. 17 Baylor will be giving away T-shirts to produce a "green out" of the stadium, as the Bears host the No. 3 Texas Longhorns tonight...

...but it doesn't help, as Texas wins 3-0.

2011-04-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

This weekend's softball action among the nation's leading teams can only be described by one word: Comeback!

No. 1 Michigan rallied for three runs in the bottom of the seventh today to edge Iowa, 3-2, and salvage a split of the teams' series. The Hawkeyes won 4-2 on Saturday, holding the Wolverines scoreless for the final four innings. Adding these innings to the initial six today in which Michigan failed to score yields a streak of 10 consecutive scoreless frames for the Maize 'n Blue offense.

No. 2 Arizona State swept a three-game series from archrival University of Arizona in Tucson, with the most noteworthy win coming in Friday's Game 2. Trailing 9-1 after two innings, the Sun Devils scored 2 in the fourth, 1 in the fifth, and 3 in the sixth (with UA scoring 1 in its half of the fifth), sending ASU to its at-bats in the top of the seventh trailing 10-7. A six-run outburst, culminating in a grand-slam by Kaylyn Castillo, gave the Devils a 13-10 lead, which ended up being the final score (box score).

No. 3/4 Alabama, after winning Friday at No. 8/9 Florida on a 5-0 shutout, was on the wrong side of comebacks in the final two games of the series. On Saturday, the Tide led 5-3 as the Gators came up to bat in the bottom of the seventh, but Bama gave up a walk-off three-run homer to UF's Kelsey Bruder for a 6-5 Gator victory. Today, in a game that was scoreless through the regulation seven innings, Florida came up in the bottom of the eighth trailing 2-0, but scored 2 in the eighth to tie the game and 1 in the ninth to win, 3-2.

Finally, No. 6/5 Texas needed a little bit of a comeback to secure a two-game sweep over Texas Tech. Friday night's affair was a 15-2 run-rule-shortened romp for the Longhorns. On Saturday, however, the Red Raiders held a 5-1 lead after two, only to have the Horns score the final 8 runs of the game (a 1-run inning, two 2-run innings, and a 3-run frame) for a 9-5 victory.

2011-04-21T12:47:00.000-07:00

With Easter coming up on Sunday, many college softball (and baseball) series are being played Thursday-Friday-Saturday (or Friday-Saturday, if only two games). A key intrastate battle in which Arizona State (No. 2 nationally in both polls) visits University of Arizona (No. 7 in both polls) is one three-game series that gets underway tonight.

The Texas Longhorns (No. 6/5) bring their hot pitching to Lubbock, to take on Texas Tech Friday night and Saturday morning.

Not all schools are avoiding games on Easter. Consensus No. 1 Michigan, which yesterday swept a doubleheader from Penn State, hosts Iowa Saturday and Sunday. Also, Alabama (No. 3/4) travels to Florida for a Friday-Saturday-Sunday series, the latter two games of which will be televised on the ESPN family of networks.

2011-04-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

The way the present season has gone, each new set of weekly national polls seems to have a new team at No. 1. Such as the case this week, as the Michigan Wolverines have now ascended to the top of the USA Today/NFCA and ESPN.com/USA Softball rankings. According to this UM athletic news release:

Michigan is the fifth team to earn the NFCA's No. 1 selection this season and the seventh to garner USA Softball's top spot. Teams that previously held the No. 1 spot this season are Alabama, Arizona, Arizona State, Florida, Georgia and UCLA.

I'm a Michigan alumnus (Ph.D., '89) and, as fervently as I want it to be true that the Wolverines are the nation's top team, even I think a healthy dose of skepticism is warranted. Yes, UM is 39-3 (including wins over Arizona State and Arizona). However, the team's three losses are to Western Kentucky, Fresno State, and Indiana.

Of course, the polls won't matter once the NCAA tournament begins. With so many teams having their proverbial 15 minutes of fame atop the national polls, there doesn't seem to be a clear favorite at this point to win the Women's College World Series.

2011-04-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

No. 1 Arizona State and No. 7/8 University of Arizona each won their respective series this weekend, leading into a key series between the Arizona schools starting this upcoming Thursday in Tucson. ASU shutout UCLA in the final two games of the teams' three-game series (2-0, 5-0), after the Bruins had taken the opener. Meanwhile, after being shutout 3-0 by Washington on Friday night, Arizona and its bats came alive to take the final two games over the Huskies (13-5, 6-1) and win the series.

In some high-scoring action, No. 2 Michigan swept its two-game series at Illinois, which had to be played as a doubleheader today due to inclement weather Saturday, 8-6 and 9-7.

Texas (ranked 3 and 4 in the two national polls) upped its Big 12 record to 9-0 with a two-game sweep of Iowa State.

In the topsy-turvy SEC, Tennesee swept three at LSU, outscoring the Tigers by a cumulative 24-2. Alabama, Florida, and Georgia also swept their respective opponents (weekend roundup).

2011-04-14T19:22:00.000-07:00

The hierarchy among the nation's top college softball teams has been shaken up in the last week, so perhaps this weekend's games will help restore order. On the other hand, perhaps we'll just see more upsets!

Alabama, No. 1 in recent weeks, got swept at LSU last weekend in a three-game series, dropping the Crimson Tide to No. 3 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll and No. 5 in USA Today/NFCA's. Granted, two of Bama's three losses were in extra innings (14 and 10 frames), but Tide fans must have some offensive concerns with only two runs scored in 31 total innings. Alabama will try to bounce back hosting Mississippi State for three over the weekend.

With no teams currently making a compelling case for No. 1 (in the present author's view), Arizona State has been handed the designation in both polls. Though 37-4 overall, the Sun Devils did not play the most challenging nonconference schedule and are an undistinguished 4-2 in Pac-10 play, having faced Cal and Oregon. UCLA (11/9 in the polls) will visit ASU this weekend. A couple of hours down the road, Washington (8/7) will be at Arizona (7/8).

Michigan, the consensus No. 2 team (but like ASU, without much fanfare), will play at Illinois this weekend. Texas (4/3), fresh off a stunning loss to Stephen F. Austin (who came in at 10-27), hosts Iowa State.

2011-04-06T22:25:00.000-07:00

Baylor swept a doubleheader from Texas Tech tonight in Lubbock (5-1 and 10-3), with your trusty blogger attending and photographing the action (you may click on the pictures to enlarge them). The Bears nearly got a no-hitter in the opener -- more on that later.

Bear catcher Clare Hosack (number 15 in green) and her teammates were on the bases early and often in Game 1.

An illegal-pitch call, which Tech Coach Shanon Hays (red shirt) went out to discuss with an umpire, prolonged a Baylor rally...

...but some good Red Raider defense, here retiring a Baylor player between third and home in a rundown, mitigated the damage.

Bear starter Whitney Canion dominated the Red Raiders in Game 1, striking out 11 Texas Tech batters.

With the scoreboard in the background displaying Texas Tech's lack of hits after six innings, Canion ran out to pitch the final inning with a no-hitter only three outs away.

But it was not to be, as Tech's Mikey Kenney led off the bottom of the seventh by blasting a 2-2 pitch over the left-field fence. I call this kind of shot a "Gwen Stefani Homer," as there was "No Doubt."

Tech, here trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth, would tie the game 3-3 later in this half-inning. However, Baylor scored the final seven runs of the game. With the sweep, the Bears are now 30-6 overall, 4-2 in the Big 12. Ranked No. 17 nationally in both major polls coming into the doubleheader, Baylor seems on track to make the NCAA tournament.

Texas Tech, which compiled a 35-1 record in non-conference play against a schedule that was, shall we say, not so heavy on highly ranked teams, now stands at 1-5 in the Big 12, with all six games having been played at home. The Red Raiders are going to have to start winning some conference games to salvage an NCAA tournament berth.

2011-04-02T15:05:00.000-07:00

Texas Tech and Oklahoma split their two-game series, with the Red Raiders winning Friday night on a shutout (5-0) by junior college transfer pitcher Kelsey Dennis, and the Sooners holding on for a 7-6 win this afternoon after leading 7-1 entering Tech's at-bats in the bottom of the seventh. OU pitcher Keilani Ricketts looked rickety toward the end, allowing a lot of Red Raiders to hit the ball hard, before recording a game-ending strike-out.

In a game televised Friday night on ESPN-U, it only took one pitch in the bottom of the tenth -- which Tennessee's Kelly Grieve belted for a home run -- to give the Lady Vols a 2-1 win over Auburn. Tennessee pitcher Ellen Renfroe struck out 20 Tigers on the night. This afternoon, however, Auburn evened up the series with a 9-1 victory.

Michigan suffered its first Big 10 loss, splitting a doubleheader with Indiana.

2011-03-29T08:10:00.000-07:00

The ESPN family of networks will be televising a number of college softball games in the coming weeks, as part of its larger portfolio of springtime collegiate athletics. The schedule is heavily, though not exclusively, oriented toward the SEC. There are several doubleheaders and even a tripleheader. I have copied and pasted the softball information below (all times Eastern):

Fri., April 1
Auburn at Tennessee 8 p.m. ESPNU
Hawaii at Fresno State 10 p.m. ESPNU

Sun., April 3
Liberty at Winthrop 2 p.m. ESPNU

Sat., April 9
Kentucky at Georgia 2 p.m. ESPNU

Sun., April 10
Alabama at LSU 2 p.m. ESPNU

Sat., April 16
Tennessee at LSU Noon ESPN2

Sun., April 17
South Carolina at Arkansas 2 p.m. ESPNU
Oklahoma at Missouri 4 p.m. ESPN

Fri., April 22
LSU at Ole Miss 6 p.m. ESPNU

Sat., April 23
Alabama at Florida 4 p.m. ESPN2

Sun., April 24
Alabama at Florida 1 p.m. ESPN

Sat., April 30
Oklahoma at Texas 7:30 p.m. ESPN

Wed., May 4
Pittsburgh at Notre Dame 4 p.m. ESPNU
Pittsburgh at Notre Dame 6:30 p.m. ESPNU

Sat., May 7
Tennessee at Florida Noon ESPN
Cal St. Fullerton at Long Beach St. 3 p.m. ESPNU
Cal St. Fullerton at Long Beach St. 5:30 p.m. ESPNU

Sun., May 8
Texas at Missouri 1 p.m. ESPN
Tennessee at Florida 3 p.m. ESPNU
SWAC championship 10 p.m. ESPNU

May 12-14
Complete coverage of SEC tournament

Sat., May 14
Big East championship 5 p.m. ESPN2

2011-03-27T17:18:00.000-07:00

Georgia swept a three-game series from Florida this weekend in SEC play, to reassert itself as a conference and national force. The SEC softball website always provides nice weekend wrap-ups; here is today's.

In the Big 10, Michigan swept a two-game series at Northwestern.

Finally, in the Big 12, Missouri (4-0) and Texas (2-0) sit undefeated atop the conference standings. The Longhorns, building on their success in last week's Judi Garman Classic, swept Kansas, while Mizzou came down to Lubbock and took a pair from Texas Tech. The Red Raiders came into this conference-opening series with a 35-1 record, largely against lower-tier competition (or at least nothing like the caliber of Missouri).

2011-03-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

Georgia rebounded from last weekend's sweep at the hands of Alabama by beating national No.2 Florida tonight, 10-7, to kick off this weekend's play. Conference action in the Big 10 and Big 12 is also on tap. Michigan, No. 3 and 4 in the two national polls, plays at Northwestern Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

2011-03-22T21:11:00.001-07:00

Alabama and Tennessee split their doubleheader tonight.

2011-03-20T23:29:00.000-07:00

Alabama, ranked No. 2/3 last week in the national polls, swept three games from No. 1 Georgia over the weekend. Look for the Crimson Tide to move to No. 1, but Bama faces another tough assignment in short order -- a doubleheader at No. 11 Tennessee on Tuesday.

Out in Fullerton, California at the Judi Garman Classic, the only team to go undefeated was No. 12/14 Texas, as the Longhorns were 5-0. Among the wins was a 12-0 run-rule blasting of previously unbeaten Washington, with Blaire Luna pitching a perfect game (albeit only five innings). Still, I'm sure Luna was over the moon! Also at the Garman...

Michigan beat both Arizona schools (ASU and UA), but lost to Fresno State to go 4-1.

Oklahoma went 4-2, beating Arizona and Washington, but losing to Notre Dame and Penn State.

2011-03-17T08:23:00.000-07:00

With this being the opening weekend of college basketball's March Madness, probably only the most hardcore softball fans will be focusing on the diamond rather than the hardwood. If so, it will be too bad, as this weekend also features arguably the best match-ups of the softball season thus far.

Georgia and Alabama, who are the top two teams in the nation according to the latest ESPN.com/USA Softball poll (Nos. 1 and 3 in the USA Today/NFCA poll), meet in a three-game series in Tuscaloosa. Game times (Central) are Friday (6:30), Saturday (7:00), and Sunday (1:30). Saturday night's game will be televised on ESPN-U. See the Georgia and Alabama team pages in the links section to the right, for further details.

Meanwhile, out in Fullerton, California, the annual Judi Garman Classic swings into full action today after a couple of games last night. The University of Washington, the nation's last remaining undefeated team (ranked fourth in both polls) heads a deep field that also includes, among others, Arizona State (5/6), Michigan (6/5), Arizona (7/7), and Oklahoma (8/9).

2011-03-12T06:28:00.000-08:00

Texas Tech, which started off the season 24-0 and achieved a No. 19 national ranking in both major polls, suffered its first loss Friday, 4-2 to Alcorn State.

2011-03-08T15:49:00.000-08:00

The latest rankings from the nation's two major softball polls both have SEC teams in the top three slots, albeit in different orders. The ESPN.com/USA Softball poll has it: 1. Florida, 2. Alabama, and 3. Georgia. The USA Today/NFCA has it: 1. Georgia, 2. Florida, and 3. Alabama.

2011-03-04T09:46:00.000-08:00

As can be seen on the daily listing of games over at Ultimate College Softball, the top teams are scattered around the nation in this weekend's tournaments, without a concentration of marquee schools in any one location.

2011-03-01T15:45:00.001-08:00

ESPN.com columnist Graham Hays is out with his summary of the Cathedral City Classic, held this past weekend.

Also, Shanon Hays, coach of undefeated Texas Tech, is interviewed by a Lubbock radio station (click here and, when the page comes up, click on "Download" to hear the full 9-minute, 53-second interview).

2011-02-27T22:32:00.000-08:00

The annual Cathedral City Classic is now over, so I thought I'd report on the win-loss records at the event of teams that were either highly ranked coming in or pulled some surprises (tourney site). (Rankings are shown as ESPN.com/USA Softball listed first, USA Today/NFCA second.)

No. 1/3 Arizona 4-1 (lost to Georgia)

No. 3T/1 Georgia 4-1 (lost to Oklahoma State)

No. 3T/2 UCLA 3-2 (lost to Florida and Tennessee; the Bruins also appear to be a little banged up at the moment)

No. 5/4 Florida 5-0

No. 6/6 Oklahoma 1-4 (lost to Georgia, Hawai'i, Long Beach State, and UCLA)

No. 9/7 Washington 5-0

No. 10/8 Tennessee 5-0

No. 11/10 Hawai'i 1-3 (lost to Nebraska, Syracuse, and Virginia; summary)

No. 18/19 Oklahoma State 4-1 (lost to Fresno State)

(Unranked) Syracuse 5-0 (summary)

(Unranked) Fresno State 3-1 (lost to Syracuse)

2011-02-24T18:41:00.000-08:00

The 34-team Cathedral City Classic, hosted in the Palm Springs, California area by Oregon State, runs from today through Sunday. Eight teams currently ranked in the national Top 10 by one or both of the major polls are playing at Cathedral City, as follows (ESPN.com/USA Softball ranking listed first, USA Today/NFCA ranking listed second).

Arizona (1/3)
Georgia (T3/1)
UCLA (T3/2)
Florida (5/4)
Oklahoma (6/6)
Washington (9/7)
Tennessee (10/8)
Hawai'i (11/10)

Three Top 10 teams are not competing in the tournament: Alabama (2/5), Michigan (7/9), and Arizona State (8/12).

As of early this evening, there already has been one upset, with Oklahoma State beating Georgia. The Bulldogs did rebound, however, to defeat Oklahoma. Some of the more attractive upcoming games include:

*UCLA facing a pair of tough opponents Friday, first Florida and then Oklahoma.

*UCLA against Tennessee on Saturday.

*Arizona vs. Georgia, Saturday.

2011-02-18T09:21:00.000-08:00

This weekend's top tournament appears to be the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic, hosted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The 17-team field is headed up by defending national champion UCLA and two other teams that played in last year's Women's College World Series, Tennessee and Hawai'i.

2011-02-14T12:21:00.000-08:00

That Texas Tech (the school where I teach) could go undefeated in a major tournament, including wins over two nationally ranked teams, would have been unimaginable a few years ago. Under coach Shanon Hays who came on board last year, however, the Red Raiders advanced to the final of the Stanford regional before losing to Hawai'i, and now Texas Tech has opened 2011 with a bang.

Playing in Arizona State University's Kajikawa tournament -- an event with roughly 20 teams, so that any given team plays only a subset of all teams in the field -- the Red Raiders won all five of their games. These wins included a 5-4 decision over No. 12 Cal, and a 7-5, nine-inning, win over No. 16 BYU. The latter win included an eighth-inning triple-play to escape a major Cougar threat. In the team's final game of the tournament, the Red Raiders got a two-run walk-off homer in the bottom of the seventh, to beat Appalachian State, 10-9, and finish 5-0.

2011-02-09T12:39:00.000-08:00

Welcome to another college softball season! As longtime visitors to this blog may have noticed, I've totally redone the graphic design. I hope you like it.

The season's pre-conference tournaments get underway tomorrow. The annual Kajikawa Classic, hosted by Arizona State, presents a large field of teams, a few of whom have been ranked in this year's preseason Top 10 (Arizona, ASU, Oklahoma; see posting immediately below) and many others of whom appeared in last year's NCAA tournament (e.g., BYU, Oregon, Stanford, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech).

Over at Ultimate College Softball, they have a monster compendium of all of this weekend's tournaments, so you can see where your favorite team is playing.

Also, ESPN.com's Graham Hays has a mega-preview of the upcoming season.

2011-02-02T16:57:00.000-08:00

The two major national polls -- ESPN.com/USA Softball and USA Today/National Fastpitch Coaches Association -- released their preseason rankings about a week ago. The two polls agree that UCLA and Arizona, last year's NCAA finalists, should be the top two teams this year, too. However, the polls disagree on the order. USAT/NFCA clearly favors the Bruins with 27 first-place votes to just 3 for the Wildcats. ESPN/USAS, though giving UCLA 10 first-place votes to Arizona's 9, puts the Wildcats ahead on overall points.

Both polls also place four SEC teams -- Alabama (3/6), Florida (5/5), Georgia (4/3), and Tennessee (7/4) -- right behind the two Pac 10 powers (ESPN/USAS ranking listed first).

Other teams making the preseason Top 10 in one or both polls include Oklahoma (6/9), Michigan (8/11), Missouri (9/7), Arizona State (10/13), Hawai'i (13/8), and Washington (11/10).

2010-10-25T23:40:00.000-07:00

I received an e-mail today from Marielle Tymon of Cambio Goes Home, a website that features short video pieces on celebrities returning to visit their hometowns. Specifically, Marielle wanted to notify me of this new mini-documentary of former University of Arizona and U.S. national team pitching star Jennie Finch going back to her old college field in Tucson to play her final professional game. Enjoy!

2010-06-08T18:50:00.000-07:00

The board above says it all. UCLA is this year's NCAA champion, giving Kelly Inouye-Perez her first title as head coach. Arizona added a late run, but it was nowhere near enough. UCLA needed a huge amount of luck to win Game 1, but tonight, the Bruins' pitching depth played a decisive role. Megan Langenfeld, who never was needed in the circle tonight, along with Aleah Macon (4 1/3 innings) and Donna Kerr (2 2/3), gave UCLA three top-shelf pitchers for the postseason. Not to mention how Langenfeld, coming off last night's walk-off homer, added a two-run blast in the top of the first tonight.

Meanwhile Wildcat frosh Kenzie Fowler, who pitched heroically for much of the tournament, just didn't have it tonight, and U of A's relief corps couldn't do much, either. Fowler's line in the box score tonight read:

1 inning pitched, 2 hits allowed, 3 earned runs, 9 batters faced, 3 walks,1 homer, and 1 hit batter.

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Below are postings I made during the game (of which I missed the first few innings).

UCLA adds a homer in the top of the sixth, making it 15-6. Chambers adds another two-run shot in the bottom half: 15-8 Bruins.

Wildcat slugger Stacie Chambers homers to left with a runner on, making it 14-6 Bruins.

ESPN announcer Beth Mowins delivers a key bit of information: There is no run-rule in the championship series. Otherwise, Arizona would be down to its final three outs, needing three runs to get the deficit below eight runs.

Just when it looked like Arizona might make a game of it, UCLA explodes for seven runs in the top of the fifth -- helped by seven consecutive hits -- to make it 14-4.

We're in the bottom of the fourth, with Arizona having scored three times to cut a 7-1 UCLA lead to 7-4. The Wildcats are still threatening, with runners on first and third and nobody out. UCLA has removed Megan Langenfeld from first base to send her out to the bullpen, as Aleah Macon struggles for the Bruins... Macon gets the side out, however, so it remains 7-4.

2010-06-07T16:15:00.000-07:00

Langenfeld, who gave up the back-to-back homers to Arizona in the top of the seventh, homers with two outs in the bottom of the eighth to win it for UCLA -- her second homer of the game! I'm not much into premonitions, but you just kind of "knew" Langenfeld was going to homer in that last at-bat.

Macon, cool as ice, strikes out Chambers with the bases loaded to get UCLA out of a jam. Still 5-5, with the Bruins coming up in the bottom of the eighth.

UCLA, trailing 5-4 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, is kept alive by a Wildcat fielding faux pas. A not-so-hard fly ball lands between Lastrapes in left and Lauren Schutzler in center, and the Bruin batter gets to second when the fielders collide. U of A intentionally walks the next batter. Arizona's right-fielder Karissa Buchanan can't hang onto a hard-hit ball to right, tying the game!!! We go to extras...

Arizona ties it 4-4 in the top of the seventh on a K'Lee Arredondo two-run homer. Stacie Chambers follows with a homer of her own, 5-4 Cats. That one went well beyond the bleachers to straightaway center. Still nobody out. UCLA replaces Langenfeld (moving her to first-base) with Aleah Macon, who retires Arizona with no further damage. Bruins down to their last three outs.

This time, it's the Wildcats who have a threat denied. Langenfeld strikes out Lastrapes with two out and a runner on third in the top of the sixth. UCLA's Monica Harrison hits a two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the inning that barely -- and I mean barely -- catches the left-field foul-line. Bruins lead 4-2.

Arizona stages a two-out rally to tie the game, 2-2, in the top of the 5th. UCLA wastes a second-and-third/one-out situation in its half.

Thanks to some sloppy Wildcat defense, UCLA now leads 2-1 after 3 innings. The Bruins' GiOnna DiSalvatore hit a deep drive to left, which the Wildcats' Brittany Lastrapes got a glove on, but couldn't hold. The play was ruled a hit, as I think it should have been, but with Lastrapes's defensive prowess, I think most observers would have expected her to catch the ball. A passed ball/wild pitch (I'm not sure which) advanced DiSalvatore to third, where she scored on a single by Langenfeld.

It's 1-1 after 1. Arizona took advantage of two walks from UCLA pitcher Megan Langenfeld to rally for a run, but then Langenfeld homered in the Bruin half of the inning.

Pregame note: The teams met just a few weeks ago, in a Pac 10 series in Tucson. UCLA took two-of-three, but Wildcat pitching standout Kenzie Fowler saw very little action in those games.

2010-06-06T12:23:00.000-07:00

My apologies for the lack of updates toward the end of Sunday night's action. Blogger.com, which I use for my blogs, went down Sunday night and the situation wasn't corrected until Monday afternoon.

Arizona defeated Tennessee, 5-2, in the teams' second game of the day, and will face UCLA in the best two-of-three championship series, starting tomorrow night. The Wildcats' K'Lee Arredondo hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth to pad what had been a 3-2 lead. The Vols continue to be snake-bit against Arizona, being eliminated by the Wildcats in 2006, 2007, and 2010. Below are some postings I made during the game.

Bottom 5: Arizona has scratched out a run to take a 3-2 lead.

Bottom 3: Wildcats get a two-run homer to tie things up, 2-2.

Heading to Bottom 3: Tennessee puts together a little two-out rally, making it 2-0 Vols.

Top 2: Arizona left-fielder Brittany Lastrapes makes one of the nicest catches you'll see in a long time, on a deep fly ball to left-center. Look for it on YouTube! Tennessee had a runner on second who apparently didn't think the ball would be caught and ran toward home -- she was easily doubled off second. The Vols' next two hitters got a double and walk, respectively, but a strikeout ends the threat.

It's 1-0 Vols, as Arizona walks in a run in the top of the first. In the bottom of the first, Tennessee does something it couldn't do in the previous game -- get out of a jam unscathed.

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Arizona has posted an 8-0 run-rule victory over Tennessee in the teams' first Sunday match-up, turning the tables on what the Vols did to the Wildcats on opening day of the World Series. The Vol offense, which had been a juggernaut for much of the postseason, didn't even get a hit until the fifth inning.

Early in Arizona's first Sunday game against Tennessee, the Wildcats benefited yet again from a bizarre baserunning situation involving its opponent (see also yesterday's write-up of Arizona vs. Washington). The Vols had the bases loaded with one out in a scoreless game. The batter hit an easy pop-up in front of the plate, for which the home-plate umpire immediately called the infield fly-rule. The rule automatically makes the batter out and ends the play, so that the defense cannot intentionally drop the ball and easily force out at the next base a runner who has stayed close to her present base. Arizona dropped the ball anyway and Tennessee's runner on second, apparently confused by the situation, started running to third and was easily thrown out. The whole intent of the infield fly-rule is to prevent such confusion, but the Vols still got in trouble, ending what turned out to be their last serious scoring threat with the game still competitive.

UCLA made it to the championship series with a 5-2 win over Georgia in today's first action. The Bruins used a combination of power-hitting and defense to pull if off.

2010-06-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

Arizona has defeated Hawai'i tonight, 5-1, to send the Rainbow Wahine home and propel the Wildcats into the semifinals on Sunday against Tennessee. U-of-A needs to knock off Tennessee twice to make the championship round, whereas one win will suffice for the Volunteers. The first (and possibly only) Arizona-Tennessee game will begin around 2:30 Central, following the first (and possibly only) UCLA-Georgia contest. Fans will recall that in Arizona's two most recent runs to the World Series title, the Wildcats fended off tough challenges from the Vols both times, in the 2006 semifinals and the 2007 championship round.

In today's next-to-last game, Georgia dismissed Florida from the tournament, 3-2. The Bulldogs take on UCLA Sunday at noon Central. Georgia must beat UCLA twice to make the championship series, whereas the Bruins need only to beat the Bulldogs once.

Defending NCAA champion Washington is washed up, having lost an elimination game this afternoon to Arizona, 4-3. Neither teams' defensive units (who combined for five errors), nor the umpires, covered themselves in glory in this one.

One play in particular was when Washington baserunner Jenn Salling, with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning and the Huskies trailing 3-1, was called out for an apparent technical violation to end the inning. Salling had advanced to third on an infield grounder, apparently leaving U-Dub with runners on first and third. However, Salling went a few steps past third toward home, during which time Arizona had thrown the ball back to the pitcher in the circle. In what I (someone who has not had technical training in the softball rulebook) would interpret as an extension of the rule forbidding baserunners from taking lead-offs while the pitcher has the ball, Salling appeared to be called out for not immediately returning to third once the ball was with the pitcher. Salling did appear to be walking back toward third, but evidently not fast enough. We have no way of knowing, of course, whether Washington would have scored any runs even if Salling had been allowed to stay at third. There were two outs, after all. Still, it's a hard way to end an inning.

Missouri was the first team to be eliminated from the Women's College World Series, falling 5-0 to Florida.

2010-06-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

Tennessee holds off a late Georgia rally to win 7-5 in tonight's nightcap.

No late-inning magic for Hawai'i in tonight's session opener against UCLA. Bruins win 5-2.

Tomorrow is the famous "Survival Saturday," with games entirely in the losers' bracket. Missouri-Florida at 11:00 AM Central starts things off, followed by Arizona-Washington. Georgia and Hawai'i wait in the wings.

2010-06-03T12:41:00.001-07:00

The nightcap of Day 1 of the Women's College World Series, a battle of the dogs, goes to the Georgia Bulldogs over the defending champion Washington Huskies, 6-3.

Fans attending the World Series are getting shortchanged of innings of softball! We've now had our second straight run-rule game, this one lasting five innings, as Tennessee has shut out Arizona, 9-0.

UCLA has routed Florida, 16-3, in a run-rule-shortened six-inning contest. The Bruins have now taken three straight games by run-rule, going back to their two games in the super-regionals.

Just as it did in the super-regional clincher, Hawai'i has used a seventh-inning home-run to defeat Missouri, 3-2, in the opener of the Women's College World Series. Traci Yoshikawa nailed a two-run blast to give the Rainbow Wahine what proved to be the winning margin.

2010-06-02T16:34:00.000-07:00

ESPN.com's Graham Hays previews the Women's College World Series, which starts tomorrow. The first-round match-ups in the double-elimination event, with starting times (Eastern), are as follows:

Missouri vs. Hawai'i (1:00)
UCLA vs. Florida (3:30)
Arizona vs. Tennessee (7:00)
Georgia vs. Washington (9:30)

2010-05-30T12:17:00.000-07:00

This year's super-regionals are now on the books. Here is the final Big Board (on which you can click to enlarge). Note also the little tributes I did to each victorious team using their respective school colors!

In the day's most dramatic moment, Hawai'i's Jenna Rodriguez hit a two-out, two-run walk-off homer, her second long ball of the day, to give the Rainbow Wahine a shocking 5-4 win over national No. 1 seed Alabama in the decisive game of the Tuscaloosa super-regional.

Joining Hawai'i in the Women's College World Series will be:

Missouri, who closed out Oregon today;

Florida, who finished off Arizona State, 5-2; and

UCLA, who eliminated Louisiana-Lafayette via two straight run-rule victories.

The Women's College World Series begins Thursday.

2010-05-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

Here's the Big Board (which you may click on to enlarge) at the end of Saturday's play...

Florida (over Arizona State) and UCLA (over Louisiana-Lafayette) each won its opening game in shortened, run-rule fashion.

Alabama and Hawai'i have split the first two games of their series, setting up a decisive Game 3 on Sunday.

Georgia has finished off Cal to make the Women's College World Series.

Arizona has defeated BYU, 10-2, sending the Wildcats back to yet another World Series.

Missouri has taken the first game from Oregon in their series.

2010-05-28T15:59:00.001-07:00

It's been a long day of softball, and here's what the Big Board looks like at the conclusion of Friday's play (you may click on the graphic to enlarge). Washington has just closed out Oklahoma, 4-0 in Game 3, after the Huskies took a 3-0 decision in Game 2. Thus, Washington will be returning to the Women's College World Series to try to defend its NCAA title from last year. Note also that the Alabama-Hawaii opener was rained out, with the teams scheduled to play two on Saturday and once on Sunday, if necessary.

Tennessee was the first team to qualify for the Women's College World Series, holding off a late charge from Michigan to win Game 2 of the teams' super-regional series, 4-3.

It's been a good showing thus far for the SEC, as Georgia routed Cal 7-0 in the teams' super-regional opener earlier today.

The Pac 10 isn't doing too badly either, with Arizona edging BYU, 2-1, to take the lead in their series.

2010-05-27T07:34:00.000-07:00

THURSDAY NIGHT UPDATE: The NCAA super-regionals (two-out-of-three series to determine the eight participants in the Women's College World Series) began tonight, with two match-ups. Below is what our annual College Softball Blog "Big Board" looks like at the end of the day (you can click on the board to enlarge it).

Tonight's two games had remarkably similar story lines, with two of the highest seeded teams -- No. 2 Michigan and No. 3 Washington -- losing, to Tennessee and Oklahoma, respectively.

Both Michigan and Washington lost by five runs, the Wolverines by 5-0 and the Huskies by 6-1.

Michigan and Washington each got two hits. The pitching gems were turned in by Ivy Renfroe for Tennessee and Keilani Ricketts for Oklahoma (the younger sister of former Sooner Samantha Ricketts).

----------

From Thursday morning:

Articles on the Michigan-Tennessee series are available from the Detroit Free Press and The Tennessean. The Seattle Times has an article on the Washington-Oklahoma match-up.

2010-05-23T12:43:00.001-07:00

All spots in next week's super-regionals are set. The super-regional bracket is available here. Following is a compilation of game articles on the teams' clinching of their respective regional titles.

Alabama

Arizona

Arizona State

BYU

California

Florida

Georgia

Hawai'i

Louisiana-Lafayette

Michigan

Missouri

Oklahoma

Oregon

Tennessee

UCLA

Washington

2010-05-22T21:04:00.001-07:00

BYU is the first team to reach next week's super-regionals, after knocking off East Carolina earlier today to win the Austin, Texas regional. Tomorrow will be a busy day, with the other 15 regionals being concluded to fill out next week's super-regionals.

In the 15 remaining regionals, each of the nationally seeded teams (one per region) are still alive, except LSU, in the Baton Rouge region. Here, Louisiana-Lafayette and Texas A&M remain. ULL just needs to win once over the Aggies to advance, whereas A&M must beat the Ragin' Cajuns twice.

2010-05-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

Late Evening Updates

Because there are so many games, I will be focusing at this stage on upsets. Thus, if you're a fan of a nationally seeded team (one per regional), then it's a no-news-is-good-news situation.

One team for whom the news isn't good is Texas, the one national seed (No. 7) in its region (edited to correct Texas's seed number). The Longhorns have already been eliminated from this year's tournament, falling first to BYU and then to East Carolina.

Morning Notes

More articles on the NCAA tournament from around the U.S. (and beyond), with the bulk of the regional action starting today...

Lubbock Avalanche Journal (on Texas Tech)

UCLA Daily Bruin (on UCLA)

Mobile Press Register (on Alabama)

Canadian Press (on University of Washington pitcher Danielle Lawrie)

2010-05-20T12:24:00.001-07:00

The Austin, Texas regional begins tonight, with Texas hosting Iona, East Carolina, and BYU. The Austin American-Statesman has a preview. The 15 other regional sites begin play on Friday.

In anticipation of the Michigan regional, AnnArbor.com has a feature on Wolverine slugger Dorian Shaw.

Finally, ESPN.com's Graham Hays previews the overall tournament.

2010-05-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

Here is my annual geo-spatial diagram of regional assignments for the 2010 NCAA women's softball tournament, with state shapes modified to reflect population (the conventional style bracket is available here). On my map, numbers represent seedings and host schools are underlined. To avoid excessive criss-crossing of arrows, I've made notes around the perimeter to indicate teams traveling a long distance. I haven't done a rigorous comparison to other years, but it really seems as though the NCAA kept a large number of regions geographically compact, perhaps to save travel money in the present economic climate. You can click on the map to enlarge it.

The seedings that jumped out at me were Alabama's rise to No. 1, Washington's placement at No. 3, and Arizona's plummet to No. 10. Regarding the latter, someone on the Ultimate College Softball discussion board suggested that the Wildcats' top two pitchers are not at full strength, hence the team's demotion.

2010-05-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

ESPN.com's Graham Hays has an article about the rising fortunes of the University of Texas program and Longhorns' freshman pitcher Blaire Luna.

2010-05-04T21:41:00.000-07:00

Here's how things look in the major conferences, with two weekends of play left until the NCAA regionals take place May 21-23.

BIG 10

Top 3 in current standings (remaining opponents)

Michigan 14-1 (Mich. St., Iowa)
Ohio State 12-2 (Penn State, Northwestern)
Illinois 10-2 (Iowa, Purdue, Minnesota)

No conference tournament; regular-season games until May 15.

BIG 12

Top 3 (remaining opponents)

Texas 13-2 (Baylor)
Oklahoma 13-3
Oklahoma State 12-4 (Texas A&M)

Conference tournament: May 14-16, Oklahoma City

PAC 10

Top 3 (remaining opponents):

Washington 12-3 (Stanford, ASU)
Arizona 10-5 (Oregon, UCLA)
UCLA 10-5 (Cal, Arizona)

No conference tournament; regular-season games until May 15.

SEC

Leading teams in each division (remaining opponents):

EAST: Florida 17-4 (S. Carolina), Georgia 18-8, Tennessee 15-7 (LSU)
WEST: Alabama 20-4 (Miss. St.), LSU 19-6 (Tennessee)

Conference tournament: May 13-15, Fayetteville, Arkansas

Note: Only remaining conference opponents are shown.

2010-04-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

Oklahoma State brought a perfect 9-0 Big 12 record and No. 7 and 8 national rankings in the two major polls to Lubbock today to face a struggling Texas Tech squad in a doubleheader. Somehow, though, the Cowgirls managed to leave their bats back in Stillwater, falling to the Red Raiders 6-0 and 4-1. The sweep lifts Texas Tech to a 5-8 conference mark and 33-12 overall record; it also gives the Raiders a pair of "quality wins" that could help in their bid to make the NCAA tournament for the first time in nine years. I stopped by for the early innings of Game 1 and had my departure hastened by a brief, but intensifying, rain fall. Before I left, I took the following pictures.

In the first photo, OSU's Megan Castle, last week's offensive Player of the Week in the conference, steps in to hit against the Raiders' Ashly Jacobs.

As shown in the next shot, Oklahoma State threatened early a couple times in Game 1, here getting a runner to third, but the Cowgirls never did score in the opener.

2010-04-14T19:45:00.000-07:00

The Big 12 conference has had a number of great teams in recent years, the following of which have made the NCAA Women's College World Series: Missouri (2009), Texas A&M (2008, 2007), Baylor (2007), Texas (2006, 2005, 2003), and Oklahoma (2003). However, the team at the top of the 2010 conference standings, thus far, is none of the above. In first place, with a 7-0 record, is Oklahoma State (schedule). The Cowgirls have swept two-game series from Baylor, Mizzou, and Iowa State, and taken one from Oklahoma (OSU and OU are splitting their games this year between Stillwater, played on April 7, and Norman, April 28). Further, Oklahoma State has entered the Top 10 in the national polls after a 12-year absence. Rounding out the recent good news for the Cowgirls, senior right-fielder Megan Castle was just named Big 12 offensive Player of the Week.

2010-04-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

No. 1 Washington swept No. 2/3 Arizona over the weekend.

2010-04-09T14:42:00.000-07:00

The Washington Huskies will put their consensus No. 1 ranking in the two major polls on the line this weekend (single games Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) when Arizona comes up to Seattle. The Wildcats are ready to take over at the top if things work out well for them, as U of A is No. 2 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll and No. 3 (behind Michigan) in the NFCA/USA Today balloting. Additional information is available from news releases issued by UW and UA. The Washington release showcases Arizona's strengths:

As always, [the Wildcats] boast one of the country's most powerful offenses, scoring a nation-best 8.36 runs per game. UA is led by USA Softball Player of the Year candidate Brittany Lastrapes, who is one of the best hitters in the country, batting .443 with 12 home runs, 43 RBI and 41 runs scored. Freshman Brigette Del Ponte has added some serious pop, blasting a team-high 15 home runs and driving in 55 runs to lead the Pac-10. The Wildcats, who were thin on pitching last year, now also boast one of the top pitchers in the country in freshman phenom Kenzie Fowler. Rivaling [the Huskies'] Danielle Lawrie nearly stat for stat, Fowler is 21-2 with a 0.83 ERA and has struck out 192 batters in 134.2 innings pitched.

2010-04-04T18:57:00.000-07:00

The Pac 10's two marquee series this weekend went to Washington, who took two of three from UCLA, and Arizona, who did likewise against ASU.

LSU, which had compiled a 24-game winning streak heading into this weekend (albeit largely against unranked opposition), got a rude awakening, being swept by Florida.

2010-03-31T14:28:00.000-07:00

Pac 10 play gets underway tomorrow, with each pair of geographic rivals playing each other in a three-game series (Washington and UCLA are treated as paired rivals, as Washington State and USC don't have teams).

Washington vs. UCLA is the marquee match-up, as the Huskies are a consensus No. 1 in the two major national polls, whereas the Bruins are a consensus No. 5. Arizona (No. 2/3) vs. ASU (No. 7/10) is also big, whereas Stanford-Cal, with each team on the outskirts of the Top Ten, isn't bad either.

The conference's weekly press release contains extensive information on the teams and match-ups.

One thing I noticed is that the Pac 10 apparently has changed its travel format. For example, all three ASU-Arizona games this weekend are listed as being in Tempe, whereas in previous years, there would be a 2/1 split between the two campuses. Similarly, all three Stanford-Cal games are in Palo Alto, and all three OSU-Oregon games are in Corvallis. I can understand avoiding a geographic split with UCLA and Washington, as the distance is hardly drivable, but the other changes seem harder to grasp. I posted a message on the discussion boards at Ultimate College Softball to see if anyone knew more about the Pac 10 travel situation. One person has suggested the changes reflect a cost-saving move.

2010-03-27T15:02:00.000-07:00

Any list of the nation's most improved college softball squads (thus far) would have to include Texas Tech. From a 15-42 record a season ago, the Red Raiders are now 29-4. That record includes a 6-3 victory this afternoon against Iowa State. Shown above is the Tech squad celebrating at home plate after a Logan Hall home run, her first of two. I attended under blustery conditions and took some pictures, on which you can click to enlarge them.

Raider senior Ashly Jacobs, shown warming between innings in the shots directly above and below, allowed the Cyclones only one run through six innings, before giving up a pair in the seventh.

Texas Tech batters, including Ashley Hamada (below), left only one runner on base the whole game, compared to six for Iowa State (box score).

The Cyclones' offense did perk up here and there, including when Heidi Kidwell beat out an infield hit in the third inning.

Iowa State starter Rachel Zabriskie struck out six in five and one-third innings, but gave up three homers to Texas Tech. The way the wind was blowing toward the outfield, virtually any well-hit fly ball had a good chance to leave the yard.

The Red Raiders' dramatic improvement has taken place under first-year coach Shanon Hays, who literally moved down the street from Lubbock Christian University, where he led LCU to the NAIA national championship in 2008, to take over at Texas Tech. (In an interesting development, Shanon's father Larry Hays, the retired Tech baseball coach who amassed over 1,500 wins as a skipper, replaced his son with the LCU softball squad.) To some extent, the Raiders' improved softball record this season reflects an easier non-league schedule than in the past. Previously, the team would play in several out-of-town tournaments that attracted some of the nation's top teams. This year, Texas Tech hosted three tourneys of its own, with a lower quality of competition. Whether the Red Raiders are for real will be revealed over the coming weeks of Big 12 play.

***

Here's my "Softball Squares" bingo card, different versions of which were given out to fans at the game today. Whenever a given type of play occurs, one can cross-out the play on his or her card, if it appears. Needless to say, I was not in the winning group of fans. There were a couple of ambiguous situations. On an infield single, the public address announcer said fans could cross-out "Infield Single" if their card had it. Wouldn't an infield single qualify under "Single"? Also, a pitched ball got away from the catcher, but there was never an announcement of wild pitch or passed ball. Finally, there was no inside-the-park home run; the announcer simply instructed everyone who had that event on their card to cross it off, to speed the game along (hence, my dashed cross-out).

2010-03-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

With March Madness and the climax of the health care reform debate going on this past weekend, I'm a little behind in writing my softball synopsis. Please forgive me. The key event in the college softball world was the Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton, California and, for those who enjoy upsets, the Garman delivered!

No. 1 Washington had its 18-game winning streak snapped by DePaul, who going into the weekend was listed as one of 2010's biggest disappointments on an Ultimate College Softball discussion thread.

No. 2 Arizona, whose loss to No. 4 Michigan is documented in an earlier entry, also lost to unheralded Virginia.

Finally, the aforementioned Wolverines lost to No. 15 Texas. Perhaps the Longhorn program, which hasn't done much in the post-Cat Osterman era, can return to the national spotlight.

2010-03-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

No. 4 Michigan edged No. 2 Arizona, 1-0 in eight innings, earlier today in the Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton, California. The Wolverines' Jordan Taylor allowed the Wildcats only one hit.

2010-03-17T22:55:00.000-07:00

The Judi Garman Classic at Cal State Fullerton has gotten started with a couple of games today. The main action begins Thursday, however. The marquee match-up Thursday pits No. 2 Arizona vs. No. 4 Michigan, with a listed starting time of 11:15 AM Pacific. No. 1 Washington is also in the field, but has no game scheduled against Michigan (teams in the same conference, as are Washington and Arizona, generally do not play in mid-season tournaments, saving their contests for league play). Other Top Ten teams participating include Oklahoma and Arizona State (depending on which poll one looks at).

2010-03-15T11:27:00.000-07:00

Conference play has begun in the SEC, and there was a key weekend series matching two Top Ten teams to mark the occasion. In that series, Alabama took two of three from Georgia. The SEC's website provides excellent recaps of each day of league play, so I'll direct interested readers there to find out more about the Bama-Georgia series. The Bulldogs were scheduled to play another tough series, against Florida, in the middle of last week, but those games were rained out.

Starting dates for league play in other major conferences include: Big 10, March 27; Big 12, March 27; and Pac 10, April 1. Please see the conference and team webpages via the links section in the right-hand column.

2010-03-05T21:19:00.000-08:00

Michigan used the home-run ball to defeat Alabama, 5-2, tonight, in a battle of Top Ten teams in Tuscaloosa.

2010-03-01T18:49:00.000-08:00

Arizona and Washington went undefeated in the Cathedral City Classic, and Missouri did so in the NFCA Leadoff Classic, to highlight this past weekend's action. With so many games going on in these tournaments, there was bound to be a few upsets. Indeed, Central Florida took a 3-2 decision over Alabama in the NFCA tourney, whereas UCLA dropped two games in the Cathedral City event, including a 7-0 blowout loss to Ohio State.

2010-02-25T10:18:00.000-08:00

Two big tournaments are taking place this weekend, the Cathedral City Classic (hosted by Oregon State in the Palm Springs, California area, beginning today) and the NFCA Leadoff Classic (in Columbus, Georgia, beginning Friday). Roughly speaking, the Cathedral City Classic will be featuring the best teams from the western half of the U.S., whereas the NCFA Leadoff Classic will showcase the best teams from the eastern half.

2010-02-21T17:45:00.000-08:00

None of this weekend's tournaments looked all that scintillating on paper. In many cases, one powerhouse team would be in a field against a number of unranked teams. A few of these elite teams indeed romped to victories in their respective tourneys (for example, here and here). However, there also were some surprises. No. 1-ranked Washington suffered its first loss of the season, falling 7-4 to Utah State in San Diego's Campbell Cartier Classic; star Husky pitcher Danielle Lawrie was not in the circle for that game.

Alabama had to deal with another ranked team, Ohio State, with the Tide winning Stetson University's Hatter Invitational in Florida. In Baton Rouge, LSU won its own tournament, despite dropping a game to Michigan (which itself lost to Virginia).

Missouri has been taking a different approach, thus far, from playing tournaments. Opening weekend, the Tigers played a three-game series with Alabama. This weekend, Mizzou was scheduled to play three with Arizona, but rain shortened the series to two games. The teams split.

2010-02-15T17:35:00.000-08:00

The dominant story of college softball's opening weekend would have to be the scope of the weather-related postponements and cancellations across the U.S. To take last Friday as an example, Ultimate College Softball's comprehensive collection of scores shows 13 tournaments suffering some type of disruption. Of the games that did get played, here are some results involving Top 10 teams.

At Arizona State's Kajikawa Classic, defending NCAA champion and preseason consensus No. 1 Washington won all five of its games. The Huskies did not face any highly ranked opponents, though. Arizona, No. 4 and 6 in the two major national polls, went 6-0 in the same tournament, including a win over Top 20 Northwestern. Kentucky upset No. 5/7 host ASU.

At the NTC tournament in Clermont, Florida, No. 3/4 Michigan lost to No. 7/8 Georgia, but the Wolverines left on a high note, pulling out a 13-inning win over No. 6/8 UCLA. The Bruins did beat Georgia, though.

No. 3/5 Florida won three of four in a University of South Florida-sponsored tournament in Clearwater.

Outside the tournament structure, No. 9 Missouri went down to consensus No. 2 Alabama and bested the Crimson Tide in a three-game series, two games to one.

2010-02-09T22:42:00.000-08:00

The 2010 college softball season begins this weekend (with weekend being defined loosely, i.e., starting this Thursday). A huge number of preseason tournaments will be held, with the NTC/Dot Richardson and Kajikawa tourneys appearing to have the deepest and most talented fields. Over at Ultimate College Softball, "UMass Fan" has posted an amazingly detailed preview of each and every one of the tournaments.

2010-02-07T13:18:00.000-08:00

The local Lubbock, Texas newspaper writes about new Texas Tech softball coach Shanon Hays and the Red Raiders' prospects for the coming season.

2010-01-26T19:04:00.000-08:00

The two major national polls, USA Today/National Fastpitch Coaches Association and ESPN/USA Softball, have just released their pre-season Top 25 rankings. The defending NCAA champion Washington Huskies are picked No. 1 in both polls; in the USAT/NFCA poll, all 30 first-place votes went to U-Dub, whereas in the ESPN/USAS survey, the Huskies garnered 17 of 20 first-place votes. Alabama is ranked second in both polls. Michigan is slotted third by ESPN/USAS and fourth by USAT/NFCA, whereas Florida is picked third by NFCA/USAT and fifth by ESPN/USAS. Other consensus Top 10 schools include UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, Georgia, and Missouri.

Play begins the second weekend in February with a bunch of tournaments!

2009-06-06T20:37:00.000-07:00

Here is my annual list of graduating seniors and key returnees for the teams in the recently concluded Women's College World Series, as well as other top players not in the WCWS. To construct the lists, I looked at the NFCA and Easton All-America teams, finalists for Player of the Year, and various All-Region and All-Conference teams. You can click on the chart to enlarge it.

2009-06-02T19:30:00.000-07:00

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON...

Here's how I live-blogged the final at-bats of the game:

Washington is two outs away from the national championship, leading Florida 3-2 in the top of the seventh. But the Gators just got a double, putting the tying run on second... The next batter walks, putting runners on first and second... Strike-out, the Huskies are one out away... And another strike-out... THE HUSKIES ARE THE CHAMPIONS!

Here's an article posted tonight on the UW athletics site about the championship.

2009-06-01T20:05:00.000-07:00

Washington gets an easy win over Florida tonight in Game 1 of the NCAA Women's College World Series final round and thus stands just one win away from the championship.

2009-05-31T11:38:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-05-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

With today's action now complete, we're down to four teams -- and three of them are from the SEC. Sunday's schedule is as follows:

*Washington will face Georgia at 1:00 Eastern. If the Huskies win, they advance to the championship series. If the Bulldogs win, the teams will have a decisive rematch at 7:00 Eastern.

*Florida and Alabama will play at 3:00 Eastern. A win by the Gators will put them in the championship round, whereas a Tide win will force a rematch at 9:00 Eastern.

Here is a summary of Saturday's results...

Evening Session

Alabama eliminated its second Arizona-based opponent of the day, defeating ASU, 6-2, in the nightcap. A fourth-inning grand-slam by Jazlyn Lunceford was the big blow for the Crimson Tide.

Georgia sent Michigan back home to Ann Arbor, by a 7-5 score. The star of the game had to be the Bulldogs' Taylor Schlopy, who homered twice -- solo in the first, a three-run job in the second.

Afternoon Session

Alabama drubbed Arizona, 14-0, in a run-rule game, thus eliminating the Wildcats.

In today's opener, Georgia knocked off Missouri, 5-2. The Tigers were thus the first team to be excused from the Women's College World Series.

2009-05-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

If you like pitchers' duels, tonight was your night at the Women's College World Series. If you like to see a lot of runs being scored, it wasn't your night.

Florida used Stacey Nelson's one-hit pitching and a sixth-inning homer by Megan Bush to edge Michigan, 1-0.

In the earlier game, Washington defeated Arizona State, 1-0, in eight innings.

Tomorrow will be a busy day, with all teams except Florida and Washington taking the field as part of "Elimination Saturday."

2009-05-28T13:07:00.000-07:00

No. 1 seeded Florida closed out the first day at the NCAA Women's College World Series by shutting out Arizona, 3-0. The Gator win prevents the SEC from going winless on the day, while also halting what had been a perfect day by Pac 10 teams.

Florida will next meet Michigan, who defeated Alabama, 6-1. The Gator-Wolverine battle will be Friday night 9:00 Eastern on ESPN.

The two other winning teams from today, Arizona State and Washington, will play Friday night at 7:00 Eastern on ESPN 2. ASU got out to a fast 6-0 lead against Mizzou in Thursday afternoon action, and coasted to a 7-3 victory. Washington took the opener, 3-1 over Georgia.

The teams that lost today will have until Saturday to regroup, before beginning play in the losers' bracket of this double-elimination event.

2009-05-27T09:09:00.000-07:00

Here's the schedule for Thursday's opening action in the NCAA Women's College World Series...

Washington vs. Georgia (1:00 Eastern)

Missouri vs. Arizona State (3:00 Eastern)

Alabama vs. Michigan (7:00 Eastern)

Arizona vs. Florida (9:00 Eastern)

All games are on ESPN. Check out the team homepages in the links section to the right (I've asterisked the WCWS participants in an attempt to make them stand out).

UPDATE: ESPN.com's Graham Hays has a detailed, team-by-team run-down of the WCWS participants.

2009-05-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

With the start of the NCAA Women's College World Series just two days away, readers may be interested in how the teams in the WCWS field fared against each other during the regular season. As per my annual custom, I've created the diagram below...

Florida and Washington really seemed to go the extra mile to schedule a tough nationally based schedule, and each did very well against this competition. Michigan, to a lesser degree, showed national ambition, but didn't do quite as well.

Georgia and Arizona State will really have to turn things around, in terms of their performance against nationally elite teams, if they're to have any chance in the World Series.

Finally, there's Missouri, who did not play any games during the regular season against any of the other seven (eventual) World Series teams. Mizzou will be an unknown entity to the other seven teams (at least in terms of direct playing experience), and the other teams will be unknown entities to Mizzou. To whose benefit will this accrue?

2009-05-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

ESPN.com's Graham Hays looks at the personal side of Michigan coach Carol Hutchins.

2009-05-24T12:32:00.000-07:00

Our Super-Regional Board is now complete, with Missouri "run-ruling" UCLA, 9-1, in Game 3 to earn the final ticket to the NCAA Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City. The World Series will begin Thursday...

Two teams joined the WCWS field earlier today, Florida and Washington. The Gators swept a pair of tight, low-scoring contests from Cal, whereas the Huskies picked up an easy win over Georgia Tech to close out their series.

2009-05-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

A long day of softball is now over. With Missouri upsetting UCLA, 2-1, here's the Super-Regional Board at the conclusion of Saturday's play...

The opening of the Florida-Cal super-regional series in Gainesville was rained out, so play will begin Sunday.

Defending NCAA champion Arizona State will be returning to the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City, having routed North Dakota State in a game that was out of reach very quickly.

Michigan will be making its first trip back to the World Series since 2005, when the Wolverines won it all. With a 7-1 win over Baylor this afternoon, Michigan ends a three-year streak of losing in the super-regionals. The Wolverines will now head down to Oklahoma City having won 26 of their last 27 games.

Alabama has eliminated Jacksonville State to advance to the WCWS. The Crimson Tide's Kelsi Dunne pitched no-hit ball throughout the super-regional -- a pair of five-inning run-rule games.

Washington won its opener against Georgia Tech.