Late night

I said in an earlier posting that, in discussing results from the conference tournaments, I would focus on upsets. How this for an upset? The nation's top-ranked team, Tennessee, has lost in the SEC semis to Florida, by a 1-0 score. According to the linked article:

Senior pitcher Monica Abbott (41-3) allowed just two hits over seven innings of work with 13 strikeouts during the tough luck loss to UF. Unfortunately, the 6-3 left hander permitted a fourth-inning solo home run to Florida's Melissa Zick to mark the eventual game-winning score.

We should not make too much of one game. However, the storyline of a tall left-hander, in the orange-trimmed uniform of a school with the initials UT, pitching well but not getting any run support may sound familiar. Any implied comparison to Cat Osterman during her years at the University of Texas is purely intentional.

Florida faces LSU in tomorrow's SEC final.

Ohio State routed Purdue to make it to tomorrow's Big 10 final against Northwestern.

In the Big 12, rain in Oklahoma City has produced multiple delays, to the point where the semi-final and final rounds are scheduled for tomorrow. The 2- through 4-seeded teams -- Oklahoma, Missouri, and Texas A&M, respectively -- have all made it through to the semis. Still waiting on the results of No. 1 Baylor vs. No. 8 Texas Tech.

[UPDATE: Texas Tech has shocked Baylor in a 12-inning thriller. With a 3-3 tie after the regulation seven innings, Texas Tech scored a run in top of the 11th, only to see it matched by Baylor in the bottom half. The Red Raiders then put up 4 in the top of the 12th, which held up for an 8-4 victory.]

[UPDATE 2: UCLA's late-season revival continues, with a 4-3 win at Arizona State.]

As I've been periodically restating, further details are available at the various conferences' tournament-specific websites, the links for which are shown a few postings down.

Late afternoon

A couple of game summaries, including "truth-in-advertising" identifiers of schools with which I'm affiliated.

Texas Tech (where I'm on the faculty) has scored a come-from-behind, extra-inning win over Oklahoma State in the Big 12 tourney. Normally, a game between two teams that finished toward the bottom of the conference standings would not be all that notable. However, in this case, the win gives Tech skipper Teresa Wilson her 800th career coaching victory. Next for the Red Raiders is top-seeded Baylor.

As I write, Michigan (my graduate school alma mater) is leading Northwestern 2-0 after two and a half innings, in their Big 10 semifinal. An online radio broadcast is available via the Big 10 tournament website, a link for which is shown a few postings down. Wolverine frosh pitcher Nikki Nemitz has already had a stretch where she struck out four straight Wildcats. The announcers noted that Lorilyn Wilson threw a one-hitter for Michigan in its first game today, a 4-0 win over Illinois (Michigan game article).

It seems like a great day for people named Wilson!

[UPDATE: It's now 4-2 Northwestern over Michigan, with the Wolverines coming up in the top of the fourth. Lorilyn Wilson replaced Nemitz in the circle for Michigan in the previous inning.]

[UPDATE 2: Northwestern has scored again in the bottom of the fourth, making it 5-2, and is still threatening. The SEC semi between Alabama and LSU is underway; Bama threatened in the top of the first, but didn't score.]

[UPDATE 3: Northwestern and LSU have won the games being followed above. ]

To round out the family ties, my undergrad alma mater is UCLA, my sister went to Arizona, and my brother went to University of Virginia.