The 2012 season gets underway today with a plethora of tournaments around the country. The leading tourney is, of course, the annual Kajikawa Classic at Arizona State (master schedule). The host Sun Devils, who won last year's NCAA championship, are ranked No. 1 in both major national polls (see links section to the right). All of the Pac 12's softball schools are participating in the Kajikawa except UCLA (which hosts its own tournament featuring up-and-coming Kentucky). Cal (3/4) joins ASU as a preseason top 5 team. Top teams in the Kajikawa from outside the Pac 12 include Tennessee (9/14), Texas A&M (15/17), Nebraska (20 tie/21), and Georgia Tech (23/unranked).
Few minutes after 6:00 pm Central: We now have our eighth team for the Women's College World Series, Oregon State (in the postings below, all WCWS qualifiers are depicted in bold). The Beavers defeated Cal 3-0 and then 1-0 today, to take the teams' super-regional series 2-1. 4:40 pm Central: We have the identities of two more teams going to the WCWS (bringing the total to seven), but Oregon State has stayed alive against Cal, forcing a third and deciding game to determine the one remaining team for the World Series. Leave it to the Beavers! Here are the two teams (in bold) that have earned bids to Oklahoma City thus far today: Tennessee , which edged Michigan 1-0 in what must have been a very dramatic finish to those who saw it live. The reason I say must have been is that ESPN cut away to show a live Barry Bonds at-bat in his quest for 715 home runs, a number that would surpass Babe Ruth for second on the all-time list. Sure enough, Bonds blasted one deep into the c...