Texas, seeking to avoid a three-game sweep at the hands of Oklahoma, leads today's series finale 3-0 on a three-run homer by the Longhorns' Kayden Henry B2. Teagan Kavan in the circle for Texas, LSU transfer Sydney Berson for OU... Sooners get one of the runs back on an Abby Dayton solo-shot in T3, now 3-1 Texas... OU adds a run T4 on two singles and an error, cutting its deficit to 3-2... Horns threatening in B4 with runners on first and second and one out... Nothing comes of it... T5, Leighann Goode homer gives UT a little breathing room, 4-2... T6, single, passed-ball, and two sac-flies bring the Sooners within 4-3... B6, Katie Stewart homer restores Texas lead to two runs, 5-3... After OU rallied for two runs in T7 to tie the game 5-5 and then took a 6-5 lead in T8, Texas came up with three in B8 -- a lead-off solo-shot by pinch-hitter Hannah Wells and then a one-out two-run blast by Stewart -- to win 8-6... Highlights of the game are available here on YouTube...
This Friday (and all remaining Fridays of the regular season), I will preview the upcoming weekend's games. Before doing so, I wanted to do an entry, primarily for sports fans who have not watched much softball, on differences they could expect to see between softball and baseball. The Sandy Plains Softball Association of Marietta, Georgia has produced a document entitled Fastpitch 101 , which details the similarities and differences in the rules of the two sports. Here are some of my own observations from over the years: 1. Because the bases are considerably closer together in softball (60 feet) than in baseball (90 feet), softball infielders consistently must pick up ground balls and make their throws to first base quickly, in order to get the runner. In other words, many (if not most) softball grounders result in "bang-bang" plays at first base, necessitating a lot of close calls by first-base umpires, who must detect whether the thrown ball (to the first-baseperso...