Washington vs. Arizona (Game 2)

Arizona comes out blazing in the top of the first, with Jenae Leles doubling in Caitlin Lowe and Chelsie Mesa. U-Dub comes up trailing 2-0...

U of A adds a run in the top of the third, making it 3-0...

With two out in the bottom of the fourth, and no hits to its credit, Washington comes to life with singles by Dominique Lastrapes, Dena Tyson, and Lauren Greer. It's now 3-1...

Arizona gets the run back; 4-1 going into the bottom of the fifth...

It's getting out of hand: 8-1 'Zona, still batting in the top of the sixth...

It's official: Arizona vs. Tennessee, two-out-of-three for the NCAA championship, starting Monday night.

Northwestern vs. Tennessee (Game 1)

Tennessee's bionic India Chiles, playing with a recent ACL tear as well as a shoulder injury, has gotten yet another hit, in the bottom of the first, and has stolen second!

The Vols, with the bases loaded and no outs, avert a disastrous double play and score the game's first run on an unusual play. On a grounder to Northwestern shortstop Tammy Williams, she tags the Tennessee runner going between second and third, and then throws home, seemingly in time to get the runner there. A subtle aspect of the play -- one that I didn't notice at first -- is that the tag-out of the runner going to third removes the force at home.

Wildcat catcher Erin Dyer, with her foot on the plate, catches Williams's throw well ahead of Chiles's arrival and, not thinking she needed to make a tag herself, doesn't. Chiles, meanwhile, continues her slide to the plate and ultimately is ruled to have scored. As the ESPN announcers suggested, Dyer may well have had time to make the tag, had she tried to, but she didn't. A later Northwestern error in the infield brings in another run, leaving it 2-0 Vols after one...

Monica Abbott has now struck out all six Northwestern batters she's faced [later amended by the ESPN announcer, who mentioned an infield hit the Wildcats had gotten], taking us to the bottom of the second...

Abbott now has eight strikeouts after two-and-a-half innings; still 2-0 Vols...

Abbott continues to roll along, with 15 strikeouts after five-and-a-half. After Tennessee, still leading 2-0, bats in the bottom of the sixth, Northwestern will be down to its final three outs...

The Vols add a run in the bottom of the sixth to make it 3-0. Northwestern is up for its (potentially) final at-bats...

Garland Cooper, the first Wildcat batter of the inning, strikes out, Abbott's 16th K (the same number she's achieved in each of her two previous outings)... Nicole Pauly pops up to the catcher...

Up comes Erin Dyer, who in the past has been able to rescue Northwestern from "Dyer straits." Abbott strikes her out, her 17th of the game and 49th of this year's World Series...

Tennessee, which has fallen just short of making the World Series championship round each of the last two years, has finally broken through. The Vols are off until Monday night.

Washington vs. Arizona (Game 1)

Not much to report here. It's 0-0 after four complete. Each team has had some threats, but nothing's materialized...

Arizona breaks through in the bottom of the sixth, with a two-run double by Sam Banister...

Game over... On to a rematch tonight.

Preview of Sunday's Play

Arizona (one loss) vs. Washington (no losses) -- These two Pac 10 foes will battle it out on Sunday for one of the spots in the championship round (which begins Monday night). U of A and U-Dub start off Sunday's action at noon Central. Given the double-elimination format, a Huskies' win in either a Game 1 or (potential) Game 2 against Arizona will put Washington in the championship round. Defending NCAA champion Arizona must sweep two, to return to the final round.

Northwestern (one loss) vs. Tennessee (no losses) -- Tennessee is in an analogous situation to Washington, with just one win over Northwestern needed for the Vols to advance to the final round. For Northwestern to return to the championship round, it must sweep two from Tennessee.

Once the championship round begins, all records are swept clean and the two finalists begin a new two-out-of-three series.

Saturday Summaries

Baylor vs. Northwestern

Northwestern scores two in the top of the first...

After giving up the two runs in the first and struggling early in the second, Baylor's Kirsten Shortridge is replaced in the circle by Lisa Ferguson. Things don't get any better for the Bears, as Ferguson gives up a three-run homer to Tammy Williams and a solo shot to Garland Cooper.

With Northwestern leading 6-0, there seems to be a decent chance that the Wildcats could end up on the favorable side of a run-rule decision, the oppposite of what happened Friday night. The key is that one team leads by a margin of eight runs or more and the trailing team has completed at least five innings of at-bats...

The Wildcats' Nicole Pauly has gone yard in the top of the fourth, making it 7-0 Northwestern...

...and that's how it ends, 7-0. Northwestern continues on, Baylor goes home.

Arizona vs. DePaul

Arizona has broken through with two runs in the top of the fifth, the only scores of the game. The Wildcat runs came on a "Lowe blow," an opposite-field double to the left-field wall by Caitlin Lowe, that is...

Bottom six, still 2-0 'Zona. With two outs, Sandy Vojik, who had a big game earlier today, gets DePaul's first hit of the game, a sharp single to left. The Blue Demons had been four outs away from the dubious distinction of having two World Series losses in the same year both be by no-hitter...

Arizona wins 3-0, DePaul goes back to Chicago.

Final Afternoon Update (Evening session still to come)

The second team to be eliminated is Texas A&M, a 7-4 loser to Big 12 conference foe Baylor. Not a good day for teams wearing maroon, as they've both been eliminated and are thus "marooned" while the other six teams move on.

Whenever Texas A&M's primary starting pitcher goes, I ask myself, "How will Amanda Scarborough fare?" (you can set this to music, if you'd like). Today's answer was, not so well, as she was replaced in the circle with Baylor leading 6-1. The key blow was a three-run homer by the Bears' Courtney Oberg (not just over the fence, but beyond the bleachers, as well). Oberg happens to be from, of all places, College Station, the location of Texas A&M.

Baylor faces Northwestern in tonight's late game, with the loser going home.

The first team going home from the Women's College World Series is Arizona State, a 3-1 loser to DePaul. Sandy Vojik drove in all three Blue Demon runs, two of them on a home run. DePaul will play Arizona tonight in another elimination game.

Arizona vs. Tennessee

This game is still scheduled to take place tonight, in spite of the late hour (11:00 Central)...

The idea of the Vols' Monica Abbott getting a repeat no-hitter was quickly put to rest, as the Wildcats' Caitlin Lowe led off the game by beating out a grounder back to Abbott. However, Lowe was called out for leaving first base early on a steal attempt. A freeze-frame on the instant replay clearly showed Lowe to have left the bag while the ball was still in Abbott's hand. Two strikeouts follow to end the top of the first. Tennessee's now coming up to bat...

Update 1: Abbott gets two key strikeouts in the top of the third to put out a fire and keep the score at 0-0. Arizona got a one-out single with a runner on second, but she had to stop at third. After a strikeout, the Vols intentionally walked Kristie Fox, U of A's hero of yesterday, to load the bases. Abbott then struck out the next batter...

Update 2: Tennessee got its first hit of the game, a lead-off single by India Chiles in the fourth inning. However, the next batter bunted into the air, allowing Wildcat pitcher Taryne Mowatt to catch the ball for an out and then double Chiles off first. The next batter was retired, so it's still 0-0...

Update 3: Abbott pulls off another Houdini feat in the top of the sixth. With Arizona having the bases loaded and one out, she induces an infield pop-up and then gets a strikeout to end the threat. One of the Wildcat runners left on base was the aforementioned Fox who singled and, as the ESPN 2 announcers pointed out, has a 1.000 on-base percentages in the World Series thus far...

Update 4: The bottom of the sixth has been the most active offensive inning for Tennessee. After two walks, the miracle player, India Chiles, she of the torn ACL, gets her second hit of the game, a sharp grounder up the middle. Even though Wildcat center-fielder Caitlin Lowe is able to field the ball probably only several yards behind the infield dirt, a Tennessee runner tries to score from second and is thrown out at home, leaving the Vols with runners on second and third with two outs... U of A then has difficulty with an infield grounder by Tiffany Huff, allowing Huff to beat the throw at first and the first run of the game to score... Tennessee is retired, sending the game to the top of the seventh with a 1-0 Volunteer lead...

Final update of the evening/morning: Abbott ends the game with her 16th strikeout. Arizona gets a runner to second with two out, setting the table for the Wildcats' Chelsie Mesa to possibly tie the game with a well-placed hit, but it's not to be for U of A.

Thus, at the end of Day 2, Tennessee and Washington are the only remaining undefeated teams. Under the double-elimination format, all other teams are now subject to elimination each time they play (unless they make the championship round, where the slate is cleaned and the two finalists play a two-out-of-three series). On to "Survival Saturday"...

Washington vs. Northwestern

After a nearly three-hour rain delay, today's opening game, between Washington and Northwestern, is finally underway. In honor of purple being the main color for each school, all of my writing for this game will be in purple. Both of these teams won yesterday, so under the tournament's double-elimination format, neither team is in danger of elimination tonight...

Update 1: U-Dub strikes first, with two runs in the top of the third, taking advantage of two walks and a single given up by Northwestern's Eileen Canney.

Update 2: It's now 3-0 Washington, as the Huskies add a run in the fourth via an unusual set of events: a walk, an advancement to second on an apparent illegal pitch, a sacrifice fly, and a wild pitch.

Update 3: It's been a very "un-Canney" night for Northwestern's starting pitcher Eileen. She's been knocked out of the game by a Husky attack that has, thus far, collected three hits in the top of the fifth and added a run, to make it 4-0. The bases are still loaded with no outs, and Lauren Delaney comes in for the Wildcats...

Update 4: Still top of the fifth, still bases loaded for U-Dub, still no outs. But the score is now 8-0. Delaney allowed three runs, then Canney was put back in. We'll see how many more runs Washington can score, but even if it doesn't add any more, an eight-run margin at this stage puts the game into potential run-rule territory. Specifically, Northwestern will have to bring the margin to something less than eight runs in its half of the fifth, or the game will reach a premature end.

Update 5: The top of the fifth finally ends with the Huskies leading 9-0.

Update 6: Game over. Northwestern falls in a five-inning run-rule, 9-0 Washington wipe-out.