Here's a shocker, a bolt of lightning from totally out of the blue (and gold). UCLA coach Sue Enquist has retired at age 49, essentially effective immediately (technically, effective January 1). Here are links to reports from the Daily Bruin and UCLA athletics department.

Starting next season, the Bruins will be coached by current longtime assistant Kelly Inouye-Perez.

Enquist, who also played for UCLA, transitioned into the head coaching job over a period of many years. Quoting from the Daily Bruin article, "After she graduated in 1980, Enquist served as an assistant coach under Sharron Backus. From 1989 to 1997, Enquist co-coached the program with Backus before completely taking over the duties." The Bruins won three NCAA titles with Enquist as co-coach, then three more with her as sole head coach.

My apologies for missing this announcement when it first came out, but Arizona (like Michigan in the entry below) has also indicated which of its incoming frosh players have been invited to try out for the Junior National Team. These new U of A players are:

"Third baseman/utility player Sarah Akamine, shortstop/outfielder K’Lee Arredondo and catcher/third baseman Stacie Chambers..."

The University of Michigan reported today that incoming frosh players Roya St. Clair and Maggie Viefhaus will be among the athletes trying out this weekend in Chula Vista, California for the USA Softball Junior Women's National Team.

St. Clair and Viefhaus appear to be amazing power-hitting prospects, each compiling slugging percentages over .800 at the high school level (to compute SLG%, you first give a hitter one point each for every single she gets, two points for every double, etc., then divide the total by number of official at-bats). Should one or both of the newcomers earn a spot in the Wolverine starting lineup, they'll join junior-to-be Samantha Findlay in providing offensive punch for the maize and blue.

The United States has won the World Championship. After defeating Australia 5-1 in an elimination match, the US shut out Japan 3-0 in the final, thus avenging yesterday's American loss to Japan. Full results of all tournament games are shown here.

On a lighter note, the sports uniform blog critiques the threads worn by the teams at the softball championships.

NEWSFLASH! The US team has lost to Japan, 3-1, in the World Softball Championships. The Americans will probably get a rematch with Japan for the championship, however. The US next faces Australia, whom it has already beaten 11-2, with the loser of this next match receiving the bronze medal and the winner playing for the title. Video coverage of the World Championships (archived, if not also live) is available at the tourney website. Softball fans are also dissecting the games on the discussion forums at Ultimate College Softball (see links section on the right).