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2022 NCAA Super-Regionals -- Friday

Below are my comments on the games. At the very bottom is a chart, showing the winners of all games in this year's super-regionals...

Oklahoma State finishes off Clemson 5-1 to advance to Women's College World Series...

Texas defeats Arkansas 3-1 to force decisive Game 3 on Saturday...

UCLA with one run in the fifth and two in the sixth to overcome early two-run deficit and beat Duke 3-2 in series opener...

Oregon State with three-run second inning (including this Madison Simon two-run homer) en route to 3-1 win at Stanford in series opener...

Northwestern with a come-from-behind win at Arizona State. Trailing 3-0, the Wildcats get a two-run homer in the top of the sixth and a solo-shot in the seventh to tie the game 3-3, before winning in 11 innings. Highlights of the game are available here.

Oklahoma up 8-0 over Central Florida after three... That's the final score via run-rule (five innings).

Florida at Virginia Tech also underway (1:00 pm Central)... Emma Ritter solo-shot gives VT 1-0 lead in  bottom of first (video)... Cameron Fagan three-run shot in second inning increases Hokies' lead to 4-0... It's now 6-0 VT in bottom of fourth... Very long weather delay... Game scheduled to be resumed on Saturday...

A long day of super-regional softball, which will stretch well into the evening, is now underway, with Mississippi State hosting Arizona. Scoreless as MSU bats in the bottom of the fourth... Wildcats have one hit in each inning (plus a walk in the fourth)... Bulldogs left two on in the second and the bases loaded in the third, but their best scoring chance probably was a Mia Davidson deep fly in the first that Arizona center-fielder Janelle Meono grabbed right at the top of the fence (video)... MSU now with back-to-back one-out singles in bottom of fourth... Easy fly to left for second out... Infield pop once again leaves Bulldogs scoreless (7 LOB for them, per ESPN announcers)... Bottom 5: Davidson sends another blast to center and this one is not being caught. It hits the camera-operator structure behind the fence to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead (video)... Arizona comes right back with Allie Skaggs leadoff opposite-field homer in top of sixth (video), tying game 1-1... U of A follows up with double... K for first out... Line-out double-play (video) ends Wildcat threat -- great play by Bulldog SS, shading toward center and grabbing sinking liner, then tagging 2B bag...  The home-run derby continues, with Matalasi Faapito also going oppo to give MSU 2-1 lead (video)... Two-out single keeps Bulldog inning alive, followed by walk to Davidson... Bloop/pop-out ends threat... Cats coming up in top of seventh, needing at least a run to stay alive in this game... Leadoff walk... Bunted to second, one out (pending replay review, potentially of whether batted-ball hit batter outside of batter's box or did MSU catcher obstruct batter running to first)... It's the latter, so Arizona now has runners at first and second with none out... My impression from additional looks at the video is that catcher, charging forward to pick up bunted ball, may have bumped batter from behind as she started running to first... Pitching change for Mississippi State... K for first out... Infield single (hard grounder to third, which fielder keeps from going into outfield but can't make any play on) loads bases with one out for Wildcats... Another MSU pitching change... 0-2 count, as U of A batter keeps fouling off pitches... Next two pitches bounce in to catcher, 2-2 count... Sac-fly to deep center ties game, 2-2... Runners on first and second don't advance on sac-fly... Grounder for force at third ends threat... MSU coming up in bottom of seventh... Fly to right for first out... Fly to center for second out... K for third out... Going extras... Izzy Pacho leads off eighth with homer to left (video) to put Arizona ahead 3-2... No further scoring... MSU now down to final three outs in this series opener... Full-count on leadoff hitter... Fouling off a few... Walks. This last pitch, like many in the game, doesn't miss by much, but umpire has had a consistently stringent strike-zone... K for first out... Another 3-2 count... Fly to center for second out... Another fly, this time to left, ends it... Arizona wins 3-2 to take 1-0 lead in the series...

Match-Up (Seeds) Game 1 Game 2 Game 3
UCF (16) at OU (1) Oklahoma

Arizona (---) at Mississippi St. (---) Arizona

Florida (14) at Virginia Tech (3) Weather delay

Texas (---) at Arkansas (4) Arkansas Texas
Duke (12) at UCLA (5) UCLA

Oregon St. (---) at Stanford (---) Oregon St.

Clemson (10) at Oklahoma St. (7) Oklahoma St. Oklahoma St. ---
Northwestern (9) at Arizona St. (8) Northwestern

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