I would have thought someone else would have put this up by now. Guess I was wrong. I think the UCLA Bruins are a heavy favorite to win the Women's College World Series in softball this year. I haven't seen the rankings but I know they advanced to the Super Regionals last weekend and will likely win there also. GOOD LUCK TO MY FAVORITES, THE BRUINS! UC-LA, UC-LA!

I don't think UCLA is the heavy favorite. Arizona recovered strongly the second half of the PAC-10 season, and there are other squads that are strong competitors.

UCLA should advance easily past South Florida in the super-regionals. Their reward...a first game matchup with either defending champion (and suddenly red-hot) Michigan (hate to face Jenny Ritter in a one-game matchup) or Tennessee with lethal Monica Abbott in the circle.

Arizona should advance past LSU and they would get comfortable foes in either Oregon State or Cal. Both good squads, but schools Arizona knows well.

Texas is favored against a capable UW squad, and FSU/ASU is a bit of a toss-up. I saw FSU in the ACC tournament and their #1 pitcher was throwing very well. As evidenced by taking out Georgia last weekend.

It is a shame that Arizona and Texas are in the same half of the draw.

The last quarter involves Northwestern with a double-threat in the circle probably mowing down UMass and Alabama taking on Stanford. I would expect the two favorites to come through. Both squads have the pitching staffs to challange UCLA.

Arizone and Texas are the strongest challengers this season, but most of the teams in the draw have pitchers who can shut down any team. It should be an amazing weekend of softball.

As I recall, Texas lost in the Big 12 championship tournament, which left it wide open for Kansas to sweep in. Texas lost in the opening rounds to lowly Oklahoma State and then to archrival Texas A&M. Cat Osterman is good but she's no Jenny Ritter from Michigan. She has virtually no supporting cast in the field. Thus, it seems Texas is not as heavy a favorite as some people will build them up to be. If Oklahoma State and Texas A&M can beat them, imagine what a powerhouse like (my favorites) UCLA, Michigan, or Arizona will do to them? I do think the three teams I just mentioned are favored.

According the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25, here are the Top 10:
1. Arizona
2. UCLA
3. Texas
4. UC Berkeley (I refuse to call them Cal)
5. Alabama
6. Tennessee
7. (tied) Arizona State
7. (tied) Stanford
9. Oregon State
10. Louisiana State

When the goddess known as Cat Osterman (see link) is on her game, Texas' lack of hitting doesn't matter much. One run was enough last night against Washington! http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/sof...-osterman_x.htm

[ May 27, 2006, 03:54 PM: Message edited by: Scamp ]

Cat gave up her first run today in five NCAA games. That was 30+ innings. She really is more dominant than any pitcher in the game.

But the reality is that Texas' bats can go very quiet as well. And anyone can squeeze out a run over the course of 8 or 9 innings in a tight game. So, Texas is beatable. But not today -- they actually mercied Washington 9-1. Which is a pretty strong statement.

All of the top schools have dominating starters. It is just whether they come out and throw the ball like they normally do. Jenny Ritter was let down today by her defense, and gave up 5 runs. The first runs scored against her the entire post-season I believe.

So far, we have Northwestern and Bama through, Texas and Arizona State. Oregon State/Cal are postponed until tomorrow, and Arizona's Alicia Hollowell is trying to wrap-up their return to the WCWS.

UCLA will advance tomorrow and then the super matchup of Tennessee and Michigan will finish tomorrow.

Should be a great weekend next week in Okalhoma City.

Well, it looks like Arizona is going to advance to the College World Series now. Alicia Holliwell looks more like a championship pitcher now more than ever. Mike Candrea is truly earning his stripes as potentially THE premiere coach in all of softball.

No matter, I have to go with my Bruins to win it all.

Here are the 8 teams to advance to the Women's College World Series, which starts on Thursday:

1. Texas
2. UCLA
3. Tennessee
4. Alabama
5. Northwestern
6. Arizona State
7. Oregon State
8. Arizona

A few interesting facts to note here:

1. No senior softball class from UCLA has graduated without winning a championship ring.

2. Half of this year's 8 teams are from the Pac-10.

3. Michigan, last year's champions, failed to make it past the super regionals this year, having lost to Tennessee.

This should be a very enjoyable series this year. I hope everyone takes in at least one game this year!

The first four games are all on ESPN2 Thursday. It is nice to see the women continue to get some coverage of a great event.

Here are some stats for the eight World Series teams --

1) UCLA -- 48-7 on the season; Selden is 33-5 with a 0.97 ERA; 7-2 against the field (losses to OSU and NU)
2) Arizona -- 49-10 on the season; Hollowell is 27-4 with a 1.00 ERA; 6-7 against the field (losses to UCLA, Texas, Arizona State, Oregon State)
3) Texas -- 54-7 on the season; Osterman is 37-2 with a 0.37 ERA (easily best pitcher in the field); 3-1 against the field (loss to Arizona)
4) Northwestern -- 47-13 on the season; Canney is 24-7 with a 1.00 ERA and Foster is 23-6 with a 1,67 ERA; 2-4 against the field (losses to Arizona, OSU, Texas, and Tennessee; wins against UCLA and OSU)
5) Alabama -- 54-9 on the season; VanBrakle is 28-5 with a 1.03 ERA and Owens is 21-4 with a 0.63 ERA; 3-2 against the field (3-1 against Tennessee and 0-1 against Arizona)
6) Arizona State -- 52-13 on the season; Burkhart is 29-6; 2-5 against the field (losses to UCLA, OSU, Arizona)
7) Oregon State -- 43-14 on the season; McGowan is 29-7 with a 1.30 ERA; 4-6 against the field (losses to NU, Arizona, UCLA, ASU)
8) Tennessee -- 58-10 on the season; Abbott is 41-8 with a 0.88 ERA; 2-3 against the field (losses to Alabama)

Thank you for that thorough analysis of the teams this year, charliecstl. I think it's really going to be a lot more competitive than it has been in the past.

For those interested, here's the tournament bracket .

Well, form held until the last game of the day. It was nice to see OSU and Bama play very tough games, even though they both went to the loser's bracket. No real surprise that ASU lost -- they actually seem like the weakest team in the draw overall.

Cat looked exceptionally dominant in the circle. 18 strikeouts and a foul out recorded...out of 21 total outs in the game. That is pretty close to perfection.

Tennessee pulled off the upset that was very possible all week. Playing Michigan or Tennessee in the first game of the World Series was almost unfair to the Bruins. Two dominating pitchers who both can beat UCLA or any squad.

Abbott looked a little shaky at first, but then got the game face going. Selden was mowing them down and then suddenly it came to a grinding halt in the 6th with five straight base hits.

UCLA did this back in 2004 -- lose the first game and then rally to win it all. I think the road is incredibly hard this time. They have to beat Bama, then the loser of Zona/Texas, and then beat the winner of that matchup twice to advance. I think it is an awfully tall order to beat Cat and Alicia three times in two days.

Nice to see Northwestern do well. I would love to see them play Zona in the championship series. But I think it might be Texas and Tennessee in a very non-traditional matchup.

Eileen Canney threw an amazingly complete game tonight to send Tennessee to the loser's bracket 2-0. She had total command of the game and left the most potent offense in the NCAAs wondering where their bats were. Great to see a new team coming out and playing great ball.

Zona took it to Texas 2-0 behind Alicia Hollowell. She is truly an outstanding hurler, but has been sort of forgotten because Arizona had a slight mid-season slump. She dominated Texas tonight and got the best of Osterman.

I was wrong. UCLA will have to get past Bama tomorrow and Texas. But then they would still be in the Northwestern side of the draw. So, not as tough as ending up against Arizona twice on Sunday.

I still see a Zona/NW championship coming as long as both schools continue to play like they have the first two days.

Well, I wouldn't have expected Northwestern to be in the winners' bracket. I actually expected UCLA to be here, but Lisa Fernandez hit it dead on: Angelica Selden is inconsistent. She will be unbeatable in three innings and awful in the next. Tennessee was prepared enough to take advantage of that letdown on Selden's part.

Arizona being in the winners' bracket, however, wasn't unexpected for me. Cat Osterman can hold it down for only so long, but the Longhorns offense can't generate the runs they need to win the tournament against the powerhouse teams. That much was demonstrated today against a wiley Arizona team which manufactured the runs, rather than earning them.

I expect Arizona to win it all, after seeing how each team has adapted or failed to adapt to the tournament setting and superior quality. Coach Mike Candrea is, without a doubt IMHO, the best coach in all of softball, period.

For the third year in a row, Texas' hopes and dreams of a championship came to an end at the hands of the UCLA Bruins. It almost brought a tear to my eye. Almost! But there was that grin and sigh of relief when both Andrea Duran and Emily Zaplatosch nailed home runs off the rumored best pitcher in college softball. What a blow to her ego!

As it stands, UCLA will play a very tough Northwestern team. Tennessee will have to go up against the Arizona Wildcats, who have a lineup that will doubtlessly give Monica Abbott nightmares tonight. Being shown their way out of the tournament today were Oregon State, Alabama, scrappy Arizona State, and the much vaunted Texas.

My picks for the finals will be Arizona and UCLA, with Arizona taking care of business in the end. I'm a UCLA fan (obviously), but I am also an astute observer of the game.

[ June 03, 2006, 10:43 PM: Message edited by: UCLAfan ]

Three of the top 4 seeds made it to this point in the tournament. This after all 8 top seeds made it to World Series. It always brings the question -- is the committee that good, or do they influence the tournament by how they seed the draw.

UCLA did knock Texas out for the third time in Cat's career. The first home run for Andrea wasn't actually a homerun. It was a single followed by an error by the right fielder. The catcher also made the tag, and should have held on to the ball for the out at the plate. The only mistake Cat made was the second homer.

The Texas bats were once again too silent to produce any good result. Selden looked sharper than the first two UCLA games, but she does lack that killer instinct. That may develop and her next two years might be scary. She is only a sophomore.

I think Zona will finish off Tennessee in game one. I think NU will come through in two today. They have probably the best 1-2 pitching punch in the tourney, and playing twice today will probably be back-to-back. (If Zona wins game one.)

Great game today between Northwestern and UCLA, as the Cats have withstood the pressure of facing off against one of the perennials, first surviving a bases loaded jam in the 2nd to preserve a 1-0 lead, and then Williams and Cooper taking Selden deep back-to-back in the 8th after UCLA had forced extra innings in the bottom of the 7th.

The Big 10er in me is rooting for the Cats to keep the title in conference, but now it would really be cool to see them face off against Tennessee, just for parity's sake.

OK, a question for everyone here? Who are you rooting for? The Wildcats or what? Let's see here.

I was hoping for a NU/UT final series.

I am rooting for Northwestern for sure. I'm tired of the Pac 10 domination and would love for a couple years that the Big 10 flexes its muscles a little bit and wins a couple titles to give others confidence that it can be done.

I have always liked the coach at Arizona and his long list of all-star players. They are a perennial favorite of mine.

But, I am a Big 10er and I love to root for the new face in the crowd. It would be fantastic to see NU come through for a second straight Big 10 WCWS Champion. The Big 10 has been in the World Series many times, but never made it to the championship itself until last year with the Worlverines. Winning two years in a row against the two most storied programs in softball history would be a great story.

Plus, Eileen Canney has been awesome the last two games against Tennessee and UCLA. No wonder she beat out Jenny Ritter for Big 10 Pitcher of the Year. She rocks.

It should be a great showdown between two very likeable teams.

Well, kick must be happy, Northwestern took out UCLA.

Well I certainly wasn't all too happy to see the Bruins unceremoniously tossed out. Early on in the tournament, Lisa Fernandez (undoubtedly the best softball pitcher in the world) commented that Angelica Selden was inconsistent. She sure nailed that one down, as Selden was exactly that when she faced the Wildcats of Northwestern. One need only see Selden's losses to the big teams to know just how the pitching expertise of Fernandez is sorely needed once again in the UCLA dugout. (Hint, hint to Coach Enquist there!)

Now as for the deserving finalists, Arizona and Northwestern, I pick Arizona to sweep. Their bats are the perfect antidote to Eileen Canney's superior performance. Add to that the cunning of Mike Candrea and his assistants in manufacturing runs, and one can see that Arizona's time is now. Either way, I expect a classic showdown to take place this week.

Congratulations are in order for Coach Mike Candrea and his Wildcats. Looks like I was right. Arizona swept in two games and their bats were the bane of Eileen Canney. Glad to see that the Pac-10's dominance in softball still holds true after all. Things are as they should be.

[ June 06, 2006, 07:19 PM: Message edited by: UCLAfan ]

I was pretty happy Arizona won to keep the softball superiority within the west. All the other places already has everything else.