Skip to main content

2018 Women's College World Series -- Day 1

Oregon's Miranda Elish (rhymes with "relish") delivers a called strike to Arizona State's Kindra Hackbarth and the opening game of the 2018 WCWS is officially underway! After a leadoff single by Hackbarth, followed by two outs, DeNae Chatman delivers a two-run homer for the Sun Devils in the top of the first... Oregon has scored in every inning but one, so far, and leads ASU 11-5 in the bottom of the sixth. Hayley Cruse's two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth gave Oregon some breathing room, expanding a 6-5 lead to 8-5. A three-run shot by the Ducks' Shannon Rhodes in the sixth is the most recent damage... Sun Devils down to their final three outs in the top of the seventh... First two get on for ASU... Single brings home a run, making it 11-6... Force at third for first out (replay suggests runner might have been safe)... Strike out for second out... and another K to end game... Oregon wins 11-6.

Game 2 -- Washington vs. Oklahoma -- is underway. The Huskies strand a runner at second in top of the first... And strand a runner at third in the top of the second... For the third straight inning, U-Dub leaves a runner on base, this time first-base... OU has left some runners on base, as well... Scoreless heading to the fourth... Leadoff walk for Huskies in top of fourth... but nothing comes of it... Washington breaks through with two runs in the fifth on a "small ball" rally (two singles, a walk, a sacrifice bunt, and an error)... Sooners can't score, yielding a 2-0 Huskies' win.

Florida leads Georgia 6-3, with the Gators coming to bat in the bottom of the third. UF pitcher Aleshia Ocasio helps herself with three-run homer, making the score 5-2 at the time... Gators close out an 11-3 run-rule victory in five innings.

Getting ready for the final game of the day, between UCLA and Florida State... Bruins threatening in bottom of the first in scoreless game, with bases loaded and two outs... Strikeout ends threat... Six-run sixth -- highlighted by Kylee Perez's three-run blast -- powers UCLA to the win by a 7-4 score.

Excellent day for the Pac 12. One game had a winner out of necessity (Oregon vs. ASU), but two other Pac-12 schools beat teams from other conferences: Washington over Oklahoma (Big 12), and UCLA over Florida State (ACC). The remaining game had an SEC winner out of necessity (Florida over Georgia).

***

The bracket for the WCWS is available here. The field is divided into two four-team pools. One group contains Oregon and ASU, who are the respective No. 1 and No. 8 seeds; No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 5 Washington. The other pool includes No. 2 Florida, No. 7 Georgia, No. 3 UCLA, and No. 6 Florida State.

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...
Read more

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...
Read more

2025 WCWS Championship Round -- Game 3

The WCWS championship-deciding game is underway... Top 1 -- TTU can't do anything with a two-out HBP... Bottom 1 -- K for first Texas out... Kayden Henry beats out a grounder to short... Mia Scott grounds a single to right, runner advances to second... Reese Atwood with a sharp line single to left, driving in first run. Throw from left-fielder hits Tech infielder in the back, advancing Longhorn runners to second and third... Katie Stewart with a hard liner to right, now 2-0 UT, runners on the corners with one out... First time in the series Horns have scored in the early innings... Tech catcher throws to third on apparent pick-off attempt (unsuccessful), allowing Stewart to steal second... K for second out... Leighann Goode up for huge at-bat: an out will keep it a 2-0, a single could make it 4-0... Goode blasts homer to left-center ( video ), making it 5-0 Texas... Infield pop to end the inning... Top 2 -- Horns' Teagan Kavan, who in the first inning extended her stretch of...
Read more