Game 1 of the championship series between Florida State and Oklahoma is underway, after two of the Sunday games were delayed until Monday...
Top one: Kaley Mudge, who was 5-for-5 last night, leads off with a single for FSU, off of OU starter Nicole May... Sooners flub a short underhand toss from short to second to start off a possible double play, putting runners on first and second... Fading flare to left caught by OU's Mackenzie Donihoo, who doubles runner off second (video)... Ground-out ends top of first...
Bottom one: Not so elementary, but Seminoles start Danielle Watson, rather than the more experienced Kathryn Sandercock or Caylan Arnold, in the circle. Watson pitched in relief last night... Watson with a nice leaping grab of a chopper to get first out at first base... K for second out... Grounder to third ends inning...
Top two: Leadoff K... Grounder to second for second out... Deep fly to left-center for third out -- CF glides right in front of LF to make catch (video)...
Bottom two: Infield error gives Sooners lead runner on first... Wild-pitch advances runner to second... Fly-out to relatively shallow right, OU runner out trying to advance to third (video)... Grounder to second ends inning...
Top three: Walk, followed by Kalei Harding homer (video) give Seminoles a 2-0 lead... Harding had also made nice throw from right field on earlier double-play... Nothing further for FSU...
Bottom three: Sooners down quietly...
Top four: Small-ball rally (walk, singles, double, throwing error) produce another five FSU runs (and a potential sixth run was thrown out at the plate for final out)... 7-0 Seminoles... Just shocking!
Bottom four: Sooners get one back on two-out homer by Kinzie Hansen... Nicole Mendes follows suit... Now 7-2... Nothing further...
Top five: Nothing for FSU...
Bottom five... Two singles, interspersed between strikeouts, give OU runners on first and second with two outs... Hard liner to left, but right at LF for final out...
Top six: Nothing for FSU...
Bottom six: Two-out single by Donihoo drives in two, cutting OU deficit to 7-4... Sandercock in to pitch, replacing Watson, who went longer than most observers probably would have expected... A little more drama, as fielding error puts runners on the corners, but ground-out ends threat...
Top seven: Back-to-back one-out walks to Josie Muffley and Anna Shelnutt... The ubiquitous Harding singles to shallow left. Muffley, thinking of scoring from second, rounds third, but reconsiders and heads back to third. The only problem was that Shelnutt was trying to go from first to third and was quickly approaching third! Shelnutt retreats to second, gets into rundown, and is tagged out... Muffley dashes toward home and scores on obstruction (catcher clearly had foot blocking the plate before she received the ball), making it 8-4 Noles... Muffley remains on ground after collision, with apparent head injury. She is replaced in the field in bottom of seventh...
Your blogger wishes Muffley the best, that her injury is not as severe as it looked like it could be, and that she can safety come back later in the series... I would suggest periodically checking the FSU softball Twitter feed for updates on Muffley's health...
Bottom seven: Nice catch by charging RF on short fly for first out... Single up the middle... Jocelyn Alo doubles to wall in right-center, but runner thrown out trying to score (video)... Now two outs... It's easy for me to criticize from behind my keyboard, but runner was just as valuable on third as she would have been scoring, as OU still would have needed more hits to tie the game... The out at the plate, on the other hand, was devastating... ESPN announcers argue that runner was sent because the perfect execution FSU exhibited on outfield throw, cutoff, and relay to home is so rare... Pop-up behind second base to end the game... FSU wins 8-4... The No. 10 seed is one win away from a national championship...