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Conference Tourneys and Other Final-Weekend Action (2019)

Michigan has defeated Minnesota 3-2 to take the B1G tournament. The key play occurred with the Gophers batting with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, with the potential tying run on second. The Wolverines' Lexie Blair snares a hard-hit liner to left to end the inning (video). The runner appears in the video to not quite have reached third when the ball got to Blair, so it's possible she might not have scored even if the ball landed for a hit. Here's the final out of the game, an inning later.

Arizona, which arrived in Los Angeles having lost four of its last five (including being swept by Washington), quickly righted the ship by taking two of three from the Bruins.

Inclement weather brought the Big 12 tournament to a premature end on Friday. According to this article on the University of Oklahoma athletics website, "Because all pool play games were not finished, the Big 12 will not name a postseason champion this year. The conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Softball Championship will go to the regular season champion, Oklahoma."

Florida has defeated Alabama 2-1 for the SEC title. Alabama and Florida will meet Saturday night for the SEC tourney title.

I think conference tournaments are a good idea for the very large leagues, such as the B1G with 14 softball-playing schools and the SEC with 13 (Vanderbilt does not field a team). In the large circuits, not all teams play each other during the conference schedule, meaning that the tournament is the only possible opportunity for some teams to face off. The Big 12, in contrast, has only seven softball schools (Kansas State, TCU, and West Virginia not fielding teams), with everyone playing each other in the conference schedule.

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