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2023 WCWS -- Day 1

The 2023 Women's College World Series is underway. Today's schedule features a quadruple triple-header of action. Due to weather delays and lateness in the evening of the Florida State-Oklahoma State game completion, the Washington-Utah game has been delayed until Friday afternoon...

Game 3 between Oklahoma State and Florida State is in a weather delay... Game starts, with OSU going scoreless in top of first... B1, FSU's Michaela Edenfield blasts no-doubter two-run homer to left (video), 2-0 Seminoles... T2, Cowgirls threatening with runners on first and second and one out... Pop to SS for second out... Foul-out near left field to end threat... T3, one out... Another weather delay (minimum 40 minutes) due to lightning in the area... Florida State wins 8-0 in a six-inning, run-rule outcome...

Game 2, between Stanford -- with ace pitcher NiJaree Canady going -- and Oklahoma -- starting Jordy Bahl in the circle -- is scoreless after one... Still scoreless after three, Stanford coming up in T4... Cardinal with back-to-back singles with one out, runners at first and second... K-swinging for second out... Full count on next batter... K-swinging to end Stanford threat... B4: Nice catch by Ellee Eck on deep fly to left (bit of a snow-cone) sends OU down scoreless... T5: Leadoff single for Cardinal... K for first out (Bahl's seventh)... Walk... Another K... Up to Aly Kaneshiro to get Stanford on the board... 3-1 count... Foul ball for full count... Easy fly to left ends threat... B5: Canady records her seventh strikeout, as OU leadoff hitter retired... Solid line single to left-center... Pop to SS for second out... Hard single to left, landing just in front of fielder. Runners on first and second with Jayda Coleman coming up... 0-2 count (swing/miss and foul)... Coleman with another hard single to left, fielder has trouble handling the ball, allowing both runners to score... 2-0 Oklahoma... That's your final...

Game 1 pits two SEC rivals, Alabama and Tennessee... The Crimson Tide put runners on the corners with no outs in the top of the first, but failed to score... The Volunteers have scored four runs in the bottom of the second, all after there were two out, stringing together a single, single, double, intentional walk, and a double. Here's a video of the first double, Katie Taylor off of Tide starter Jaala Torrence... 4-0 Tennessee heading to T3... Bama with runners on first and second (both from walks) with two out... Full count on Ally Shipman... Shipman bloops one to shallow left, just beyond reach of the SS, driving in Bama's first run, now 4-1 Vols... Kenleigh Cahalan sends seemingly innocuous grounder down the first-base line, but ball hits the bag and bounces high in the air, confusing Tennessee 1B-person. Second run scores for Bama, now 4-2 Tennessee... Groundout ends inning... B4, Vols go up 10-2, punctuated by Rylie West's three-run blast to left (video)... T5: Two-out double by Bama's Cahalan drives in two, cuts deficit to 10-4... Weak infield pop-up ends threat... T6: Bama solo homer cuts deficit to 10-5... No further scoring, as Tennessee takes Game 1...

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NiJaree Canady, whose sub-1.00 ERA helped lead Stanford to the Women's College World Series in both her years with the Cardinal, announced on July 24 that she is transferring to Texas Tech. I've lived in Lubbock for 27 years and can say that the town has been improving with a greater selection of restaurants and shops, and a new downtown performing arts center. Likewise, nice new facilities have been dotting the Texas Tech campus . Still, it seems unlikely that Canady would have become a Red Raider without the $1 million annual Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deal for her, made possible by the donation of a Texas Tech alumni couple. So stunning an event is this, even in the ever-changing world of collegiate athletics, that the New York Times  even ran a behind-the-scenes story on Canady's path to Texas Tech. I look forward to being in the stands to watch Canady pitch next spring, an opportunity I never expected to have.

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