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2018 WCWS Championship Round -- Game 1

In what had been a perfectly chalky postseason -- all 16 national seeds winning their regionals and all top-eight seeds winning their super-regionals -- our WCWS championship round features the No. 5 and No. 6 seeds, Washington and Florida State, respectively. Go figure!

Huskies batting in the bottom of the third, looking to score the game's first run(s) with the bases loaded and one out... K for second out... and K to end the threat... Still 0-0 heading into top of fourth... One-out walk and stolen-base give FSU a runner in scoring position... Another walk gives Seminoles runners on first and second... Fly-out for second out... Walk loads the bases... Grounder to SS who tags out runner in transit from second to third ends the half-inning. Still scoreless... Bottom 4: One-out walk gives Huskies a runner... Foul-out to left for second out... K ends inning... Top 5: FSU's Jessie Warren barely gets her bat on pitch at her shoestrings, but drives ball on one hop to the wall for a one-out double... Husky SS snares high-hopper and gets runner at first; Warren advances to third... Foul-out near left-field line ends half-inning... Bottom 5: Leadoff single for U-Dub, followed by fly-out... Stolen base, followed by sac-bunt puts runner on third with two out... Easy grounder to 2B ends inning... FSU's Anna Shelnutt leads off top of sixth by blasting a homer to center for 1-0 lead... With one out, nice grab by U-Dub SS Sis Bates of flare into shallow left, also doubling runner off second, ends half-inning and prevents any further damage... Huskies go quietly in bottom of sixth... Warren with a two-out double in the top of the seventh, her second two-bagger of the night... K ends half-inning... Last chance for Huskies... Sharp single to center to lead off... U-Dub pops-up bunt in front of home, Warren comes all the way from third to catch ball, and double runner off first... Huskies down to last out... Batter beats throw to first on grounder to short, but narrowly averts baserunning disaster. Apparently thinking throw headed into dugout, runner rounds bag and heads to second; nearly picked-off back at first... Star hitter Taylor Van Zee up for Washington... Ground-out to pitcher ends the game. Florida State wins 1-0... 

Link to NCAA Game-1 gametracker.

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