A lot of softball today, as five of the eight super-regional series are going to a decisive Game 3.,, The SEC conceivably could send five teams to the Women's College World Series. One is guaranteed (the Tennessee-Alabama winner), with Texas A&M, Florida, Missouri, and LSU potentially making it also. The Big 12 could send up to four with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State already having qualified and Texas and Baylor playing today...
[Update: The Big 12 will have three teams in the WCWS in Texas, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State; the Pac-12 (UCLA, Stanford) and SEC (Florida, Alabama) will each have two; and Duke will represent the ACC.]
Stanford-LSU about to get started... Stanford gets an 8-0, six-inning run-rule win, punctuated by this walk-off homer...
Texas-Texas A&M getting underway... T1, the Aggies' Trinity Cannon continues her slugging ways, this time with a double that drives in the game's first run... B2, with one out and runner on first, Longhorns' Katie Stewart doubles off the wall in left, but lead runner thrown out at third. Ground-out ends inning... T3, single and HBP to open inning give Aggies a threat... Grounder to 3B-person who steps on bag for force then throws to first for double-play. A&M now has runner on second with two outs... Ground-out ends inning... B3, Texas rallying, has scored two runs so far -- here's the first Longhorn run. 2-1 Texas after three complete... Texas adds a third run in B5, now 3-1 Horns... T6, Ags coming up, facing 3-1 deficit... Another "Cannon ball," a single off the wall in left... Next batter bunts and chaos ensues at first with a collision and the throw getting away. Cannon to third, batter stays at first. I'd anticipate a video review of whether the runner stayed in her lane, but no challenge made... 3-1 count on next batter... Force at second on grounder, but batter beats throw to first (upheld on review). Run scores from third, so Texas lead reduced to 3-2... Longhorn pitching change, Teagan Kavan for Mac Morgan... Rylen Wiggins coming up for A&M... Bloop to center falls between three Longhorns. Runners now on first and second... Mya Perez, who hit big homer yesterday, coming up... HBP to load bases (Texas will challenge, apparently on whether batter tried to avoid pitch, but challenge rejected)... Allie Enright up for A&M, quick 0-2 count... Swing and miss for second out... Aiyana Coleman to pinch hit... Foul for 0-1... Another foul for 0-2... Swing and miss to end Aggie threat, with Texas leading 3-2... Texas building some cushion in B6, scoring three runs so far to lead 6-2... Aggies close to within 6-5 in T7 on Julia Cottrill's hree-run homer just inside the LF fair-pole and then get the tying run to second base on consecutive walks, but can't get the equalizer. Longhorns on to the WCWS.
Duke-Missouri underway... T1, Duke fails to take advantage of having runners at the corners with one out... Nothing for Mizzou in B1, either... Still no score heading into B6... Still scoreless as Mizzou bats in B7 with one out... Two-out single keeps inning going... K ends the inning, we're going extras! T8, Duke goes down 1-2-3... Going to T9 scoreless... D'Auna Jennings leads off with homer to give Duke the game's first run... Two-out HBP, followed by Amiah Burgess triple increases Blue Devils' lead to 2-0... Ana Gold doubles in Burgess to make it 3-0 Duke... Pop-up behind 1B drops in to drive home another run, 4-0 Duke... Mizzou finally escapes... B9, Tigers get first two batters on base (first and second)... Duke pitching change (Lillie Walker for Cassidy Curd). Next batter grounds out to first... Abby Hay with a real "haymaker," a three-run homer to right... Devil lead now down to 4-3... Grounder to third for second out... Kara Daly coming op for Mizzou. Tigers could sure use a "Daly double" or triple or homer... Curd back in to pitch... 0-1 count... 1-1... 2-1... Daly with sharp single up the middle... We now have a Golden Pitch situation, in that on any of the upcoming pitches, either team can win (Duke with an out, Mizzou with a homer)... 1-0 count to Madison Walker... Foul for 1-1... Hard hit to center, but caught... Duke, in only its seventh year with a softball program, will make its first WCWS appearance with 4-3 win...
Tennessee-Alabama underway... T1, after first two Crimson Tide batters retired, a single and back-to-back HBP load the bases... Riley Valentine follows with grand-slam, just over the left-fielder's glove (video)... 4-0 Bama... Next batter walks and batter after that goes 3-0 in the count... Pitcher rallies for strikeout to end the half-inning... Game has been in a long weather delay... Play resumes... Still 4-0 Tide after two complete... Same score as Bama coming up in T4... Vols running out of time, coming up in B6... Still 4-0 Tide as Vols come up in B7... HBP to lead things off... Single puts runners on the corners with none out... Batter bunts, safe at first, lead runner safe at home. Runner from first now on second... Now 4-1 Bama, none out... Force at third for first out, Tennessee with runners at first and second... Pitching change for Tide, Kayla Beaver for Jocelyn Briski... HBP (after a long video review) loads the bases with one out... Alannah Leach to pinch hit for Tennessee... First pitch low, 1-0 count... Same for 2-0 count... 2-1... 2-2... Foul... Another foul... Another foul... Foul out (third-base side of field, near stands) for second out... Kiki Milloy up in Golden Pitch situation (grand-slam wins it for Tennessee, out wins it for Bama)... It's the latter, as Milloy grounds out... Bama to WCWS...
Florida leads Baylor 4-0, as the Bears bat in T3... The Gators scored two runs each in the first and second innings, the latter coming from a two-run homer by Mia Williams (video)... UF fails to score B3 after loading the bases with none out... Baylor responds with one in the fourth and two in the fifth to close the deficit to 4-3... B5, Florida again loads the bases with none out and gets a sac-fly to increase lead to 5-3... But that's all the Gators get... Baylor down to final at-bats in T7... Leadoff infield single for Bears... Walk to next batter, putting tying runs on base... Bunt popped up for first out.. Deep fly-out to left for second out... Pop-up ends it, Gators win 5-3 to reach WCWS...
| Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | |
| Texas (1) vs. Texas A&M (16) | A&M | Texas | Texas |
| Oklahoma (2) vs. Florida State (15)* | Oklahoma | Oklahoma | --- |
| Tennessee (3) vs. Alabama (14) | Tennessee | Alabama | Alabama |
| Florida (4) vs. Baylor (-) | Florida | Baylor | Florida |
| Oklahoma State (5) vs. Arizona (-) | Okla. St. | Okla. St. | --- |
| UCLA (6) vs. Georgia (11)* | UCLA | UCLA | --- |
| Missouri (7) vs. Duke (10) | Duke | Mizzou | Duke |
| Stanford (8) vs. LSU (9) | LSU | Stanford | Stanford |