Washington becomes the first team to advance to the WCWS championship round, with a 3-0 victory over Oklahoma. The loss eliminates the Sooners and ends their streak of two straight national championships. Both of Oklahoma's losses in this year's World Series were shutouts at the hands of the Huskies. In the first Husky-Sooner match-up on Thursday, Gabbie Plain pitched 5 2/3 innings for Washington and Taran Alvelo 1 1/3. Today, Alvelo went the distance.
UCLA (needing one win to advance) and Florida State (needing two) are now underway. The Bruins are the visitors in this first game... UCLA takes a 1-0 lead in the top of the third... Bruins batting in top of fifth... Unusual play, as liner off FSU pitcher's foot deflects up into the air and caught by third-baseperson for first out. Not totally clear if ball hit the ground before pitcher's foot, but there is no replay review... Sharp single to right gives Seminoles runner on first with none out, bottom of fifth... K for first out... Weak pop-up for second out... Fly-out to left ends the inning... Leadoff single for UCLA in top of sixth... K for first out... Double-play on grounder to second-baseperson ends the half-inning... Bottom 6: UCLA CF Bubba Nickles reaches a foot above fence to rob FSU's Dani Morgan of home-run (video)... FSU gets one-out single... HBP on batter's hand puts Seminoles on first and second... ESPN graphic notes that FSU 1-for-11 with runners on base, 0-for 6 with Runners in Scoring Position (RISP)... Ground-out to 1B for second out, runners advance to second and third... Elizabeth Mason hits 1-2 pitch over wall in center (despite Nickles' best efforts), now 3-1 Florida State... Yet another deep drive to center, but Nickles makes the catch, ending sixth inning... Bruins down to final three outs in effort to move directly to WCWS finals and avoid rematch with FSU... K for one down... Low liner down first-base line gets by first-baseperson for a single... K for second out... Briana Perez, facing 0-2 count, doing a good job of fouling-off good pitches. Now 3-2... Ball four on questionable check-swing, putting Bruins on first and second... Pop foul-out ends game. FSU wins 3-1... UCLA and FSU will have winner-take-all rematch to get to final round.
Florida State completes the two-game sweep of UCLA with a 12-6 rout. FSU on to the championship round and UCLA eliminated.
NCAA Softball tweets that, for the first time, all four WCWS semifinal coaches are women...
UCLA (needing one win to advance) and Florida State (needing two) are now underway. The Bruins are the visitors in this first game... UCLA takes a 1-0 lead in the top of the third... Bruins batting in top of fifth... Unusual play, as liner off FSU pitcher's foot deflects up into the air and caught by third-baseperson for first out. Not totally clear if ball hit the ground before pitcher's foot, but there is no replay review... Sharp single to right gives Seminoles runner on first with none out, bottom of fifth... K for first out... Weak pop-up for second out... Fly-out to left ends the inning... Leadoff single for UCLA in top of sixth... K for first out... Double-play on grounder to second-baseperson ends the half-inning... Bottom 6: UCLA CF Bubba Nickles reaches a foot above fence to rob FSU's Dani Morgan of home-run (video)... FSU gets one-out single... HBP on batter's hand puts Seminoles on first and second... ESPN graphic notes that FSU 1-for-11 with runners on base, 0-for 6 with Runners in Scoring Position (RISP)... Ground-out to 1B for second out, runners advance to second and third... Elizabeth Mason hits 1-2 pitch over wall in center (despite Nickles' best efforts), now 3-1 Florida State... Yet another deep drive to center, but Nickles makes the catch, ending sixth inning... Bruins down to final three outs in effort to move directly to WCWS finals and avoid rematch with FSU... K for one down... Low liner down first-base line gets by first-baseperson for a single... K for second out... Briana Perez, facing 0-2 count, doing a good job of fouling-off good pitches. Now 3-2... Ball four on questionable check-swing, putting Bruins on first and second... Pop foul-out ends game. FSU wins 3-1... UCLA and FSU will have winner-take-all rematch to get to final round.
Florida State completes the two-game sweep of UCLA with a 12-6 rout. FSU on to the championship round and UCLA eliminated.
NCAA Softball tweets that, for the first time, all four WCWS semifinal coaches are women...