Skip to main content

Tough Weekend for Top Teams

Things haven't gone very well this weekend for the nation's elite teams.

No. 1 LSU dropped two of three at Kentucky, avoiding a sweep with a 2-0 victory today.

Other top teams won the first two games against their respective unranked opponents, but were unable to complete sweeps.

One "broom-free" zone was Starkville, Mississippi, where No. 3/2 Florida sought to make it three straight over Mississippi State. However, the Gators today gave up a five-spot to the Bulldogs in the bottom of the seventh, to drop the game 5-3.

As shown earlier today on the Big Ten Network, No. 4 Michigan failed in its bid for a three-game sweep over Iowa. Amidst light Ann Arbor snow flurries, the Wolverines squandered a 4-0 lead by allowing the Hawkeyes three runs in the sixth (including two homers) and three in the seventh, for a 6-4 final.

Meanwhile, No. 2/3 Oregon has defeated is currently hosting Washington in the deciding game of the teams' three-game series.

Popular posts from this blog

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...

2012 Geospatial Map of NCAA Tournament

Here is my annual geospatial map of the NCAA regional assignments. The official NCAA bracket is listed here . Each of the 16 regional sites has its own color code. For example, the geographically compact University of Florida region, hosted by the No. 5 seed Gators and also featuring Central Florida, South Florida, and Florida Gulf Coast, depicts the teams in blue boxes with orange letters. Two of the most spread-out regions are:  The one hosted by top-seed Cal, whose visitors include Arkansas, Iona (NY), and Boston University. These teams are shown in dark-blue boxes with yellow lettering. The University of Washington (No. 16 seed) region, whose participants (depicted in purple boxes with yellow letters) include Texas Tech, Maryland, and Harvard. Overall, the seedings are about what I had expected them to be (other years have presented greater surprises). Conference highlights (and lowlights) include: Of the nine Pac 12 schools that field softball teams, eight got in t...
Stanford swept the Oregon schools to hold first place in the Pac 10 at 5-1. Washington swept the Arizona schools , leaving the Huskies, Sun Devils, and Wildcats tied for second, each at 4-2. UCLA edged Arizona 3-2 on Sunday to break a four-game conference losing streak.