University of Washington softball

Tonight the Dawgs take on Georgia in the first round of the College Softball World Series.

Three Huskies, Danielle Lawrie, Jenn Salling and Niki Williams made the NFCA All-America teamfirst team.

The UW Daily ran this preview by Christian Capel about the World Series yesterday:

WASHINGTON (50-7)

It’s pretty simple for the Huskies: If Danielle Lawrie pitches like she has all season, they’re the runaway favorite to win another national championship. And this is where Washington’s offense really came alive in 2009’s postseason run, when Jenn Salling and Niki Williams started knocking the ball all over the yard and the Huskies put up runs at a record pace. Plus, UW is in the weaker half of the bracket, facing a familiar Georgia team in the first round, then playing the winner (assuming the Huskies win) of a game between No. 15 Tennessee and No. 10 Arizona. And the Huskies are 7-1 this year against WCWS teams, the only loss coming in their Pac-10 opener against UCLA.

FLORIDA (48-8)

There wasn’t much of a drop-off for the Gators this year after All-American ace Stacie Nelson graduated. Stephanie Brombacher has stepped quite nicely into the void Nelson left, leading Florida with a 34-6 record and 1.89 ERA. The Gators hit the ball so well, though, all she has to do is be mildly effective. Florida has four players with 15 or more homers, led by the 20 of Francesca Enea. Seven of the nine players in their regular starting lineup are batting over .300. That kind of production can make the difference in Oklahoma City.

Read the rest of the info about the teams at The Daily.

Reasons why you're still single... US Women's Softball

You stayed up late last night watching the US Women's Softball team play against Australia. Not only that but you started to think that the sport of softball wasn't that bad and if marketed well, it could be a bigger draw.

Then on a napkin you drew up the organization of Major League Softball with franchises in Spokane, Missoula, Colorado Springs, Flint, and Wenatchee.

It still would probably be more popular than soccer.

Huskies are National Champions

The University of Washington Huskies softball team is the 2009 NCAA Champions!

Great job ladies!

The trophy is coming to Seattle!

The Huskies ended the Florida Gators season with a 3-2 victory moments ago.

The game ended very fitting as Danielle Lawrie struck out the final batter to win the game.

Lawrie was the 2009 college softball player of the year. And tonight she showed why.

Lawrie finishes the World Series with a 5-1 record, 49 strike outs and a grand slam.

Huskies win!

The softball team jumped out to a 1-0 game lead over the Florida Gators moments ago. One more win and they'll be bringing the Championship trophy to Seattle.

They blew the Gators out of the water with a final score in the game 8-0.

GO DAWGS!!!!

Huskies in Oklahoma City

The Washington Huskies softball team is currently playing the Florida Gators in game 1 of the NCAA Championship.

It's a best of 3 game series. Currently the Huskies are up 4-0 in the top of the 4th. The announcers have been talking about how Tim Tebow was in the stands. But then, they cut to the Husky fans and who should be sitting front and center?

Jake Locker of course.

Go Dawgs!

High School Sports Feature: Alison Holst throws no-hitter

I always use to hate Colville, since they were the bigger town to the north of Chewelah, but I might need to hold my tongue after the Indians defeated Riverside 21-1 in softball as Alison Holst threw a no-hitter and struck out seven.

The pitcher also added two hits as Colville improved their record to 4-1 on the season. In the game, Riverside lost their pitcher Jolene Millspaugh to a broken toe.

Millspaugh had three hits before she was taken out of the game.

The top bats for Colville were Lane Thayer and Jessica Ebel as both had three RBIs apiece.

And I'm officially in baseball/softball mode.

Pac-10 Domination

The Pac-10 has won many championships in many sports over the years. They have also been dominant in some sports at certain times in the past. You can look to the 6 baseball championships they won in the 60's (3 each by the USC Trojans and Arizona State Sun Devils), and then again in the 70's when USC won 5 straight from 1970 to 1974 (as well as another in 1978, also with the Arizona Wildcats winning back to back in 76-77). Of course there was Men's basketball in the 60's and 70's with the UCLA Bruins winning 10 championships from the 1963-64 season to the 1974-75 season.

None of those stretches of dominance can measure up to how dominate Softball has been in the Pac-10. The first Women's College World Series was held in 1982 and was won by UCLA over Fresno State. The Pac-10 has actually won 21 of the 27 Softball World Series that have been held, even winning 10 in a row from 1988 through 1997. Even in 1995 when UCLA won and the championship was vacated by the NCAA Committee on Infractions, Arizona was right there to pick up the title since they were the runner up. Actually of the 54 possible contestants in the 27 years of the Championship Series final, the Pac-10 has had 36 teams represent the conference. There has been only two years that the Pac-10 didn't have a team in the Championship Series and that was 1983 and 1986. Eleven times the Championship Series has featured both teams from the Pac-10!

Now if that isn't dominance then I don't know what is, and if you don't think Women's softball is tough feel free to step into the batters box and try to hit a pitch coming at you between 60-70 miles an hour from 43 feet away.

Oh yeah, lets hope that the Pac-10 can add a 22nd title this year by way of the Washington Huskies. Go Lady Dawgs!!

Epic Video of Greatness

Here's Saturday afternoon in Cheney...