this year, that's decent regardless of the competition. Most players will improve after their freshman year. I would expect Beaubien to get a majority of the meaningful inning anyways, like Megan Betsa did in her career.
Right now softball is same as football. Beats inferior teams but can’t win games that matter against teams with a pulse. Softball always closer to coming out of this than football
ND gets shutout by Kentucky. Have to beat them tomorrow. At this point I don’t care if Michigan gets out of the region I just don’t want the season to end against ND. To hell with ND!
Kentucky demolished ND, so we get a rematch with the Irish tomorrow at noon. If we win we'd have to beat Kentucky twice.
I'm a little surprised that Blanco didn't get the start against Illinois-Chicago, given that a win meant the team needed three more to advance. But Beaubien came out after 76 pitches with the game in hand.
She has started two games in one day once this season, and that was her best day as a Wolverine - two-hitting Notre Dame over five innings, then two-hitting Florida State over seven innings way back on February 17. No runs allowed. That day is likely the reason Michigan was a 2-seed in a regional rather than a 3-seed.
They didn't keep pitch counts for that tournament, unfortunately, but she walked 2, struck out 11 and didn't hit a batter that day. I'll maintain she's at her best when she's getting a high percentage of ground-ball outs rather than strikeouts. The infield defense has been a little shakier lately. I hope that's just random flux.
Running some numbers on the tournament so far:
1-seeds in regionals (hosts) have reached 15 regional final series (with Oregon already winning a regional, since the Ducks were hosting BYU and had to start a day early because of that). Only #9 South Carolina has been eliminated. #3 UCLA is the only other 1-seed that has even lost a game, and needs to beat 3-seed Cal State-Fullerton twice today.
2-seeds are in 6 regional finals, 3-seeds are in 7 and 4-seeds are in 1 (Jacksonville State is going up against #6 Florida State). In addition to Michigan/Notre Dame playing to reach a regional final, Missouri and Tulsa are 2/3s that had their game last night suspended in the fourth inning. Of the 30 teams that have reached regional finals, only three, Jacksonville State (87th), Ohio University (55th) and Fullerton (49th) are below 40th in RPI. Let's hope Notre Dame (42nd) doesn't become the fourth.
Of the remaining 1-seeds, eight are from the SEC and five are from the Pac-12, one is from the ACC and one from the Big 12. Three more SEC teams are among the 33 teams still alive - adding up to one third of the current bracket. The Pac-12 has six teams remaining.
Only Wisconsin has been eliminated out of the five Big Ten teams in the tournament. Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio State are 2-seeds and Northwestern is a 3-seed, upsetting 2-seed California for a second time last night.
However, these are the other Big Ten teams and their results so far against 1-seeds. Northwestern lost to #7 Georgia, 12-0 yesterday. Ohio State lost to #2 Florida, 10-2. Minnesota split with Texas, eliminating them last night, so has yet to play #5 Washington.
Good summary post, but South Carolina has not been eliminated. They beat Hofstra yesterday on a walkoff HR. They will have to beat Liberty twice today to advance.
I see that. What's really, really odd is that NCAA.com indicated Hofstra won that game for quite a while, correcting it this morning, I guess.
Two today and one tonorrow ?
If the noon winner beats Kentucky in the 2:30 game, the "if necessary" game will be played on Monday, time tba depending on the weather forecast.
The M v Notre Dame elimination game will be on ESPN.