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During a break in one of the March Madness NCAA basketball games this afternoon, I was doing some channel surfing and came upon a Fox Sports cable telecast of the finale of this weekend's Alabama-LSU softball series. The Tigers won today's game 3-0, although things were a little more precarious for LSU than the score suggests, as Alabama got multiple runners on base in the top halves of the sixth and seventh innings. In fact, the Crimson Tide's offensive totals in the box score reflected the unusual situation of a team getting 10 hits, but no runs. Alabama hurler Chrissy Owens (16-1) absorbed her first loss of the season. With the win, LSU took the three-game series, 2-1.

Elsewhere in the SEC, Florida swept its series with Georgia in a battle of nationally ranked squads, No. 1 Tennessee continues to roll (sweeping Arkansas this weekend), and Kentucky's Brooke Marnitz (facing Mississippi this weekend) continues her hot hitting. In statistics as of Saturday that I found on the UK athletics website Sunday night, Marnitz has a batting average of .432, an on-base average of .484, and a slugging percentage of .963.

It's still a while away, in late April, but two LSU-Tennessee games will be televised on ESPN2.

***

Around the nation, in the Louisville tournament, Michigan rebounded from its tough Saturday to beat the host Cardinals, leaving U of L at 3-1 for the tourney. Northwestern also finished at 3-1 in the event. In theory, one could award the tournament title to the Cards, as they beat the Wildcats head-to-head, but the Louisville softball page made no mention of the final standings, as best I could tell.

In the Big 12, Texas slowed down Oklahoma's momentum a bit, defeating the Sooners in 10 innings.

Next weekend, the Big 10 and Pac 10 start their conference seasons!

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