There is no major tournament this weekend attracting a large number of the nation's top-ranked teams. Instead, there are a lot of smaller tournaments. One match-up that has great personal interest for me is UCLA vs. Michigan in the Disney/Wide World of Sports tournament in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The Bruins and Wolverines are just getting underway now, late Friday afternoon. UCLA is where I received my bachelor's degree and Michigan, where I obtained my Ph.D. Both teams currently are ranked in the mid-teens nationally, a far cry from 2005 when UCLA and Michigan played a classic three-game final round in the Women's College World Series (won by the Wolverines, thanks to Samantha Findlay's three-run blast in the top of the 10th inning of Game 3).
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...