2011 NCAA Softball World Series: Sunday's Schedule, TV Listings

After a marathon 13-inning game that kept Baylor alive with a victory over No. 5 Mizzou, the semi-finalists are now completely set for today’s games that determine who moves on to the best of three championship series in the 2011 Women’s College World Series.

In yesterday’s final action, Florida overcame California to win the final spot against Alabama, the No. 2 ranked team in the nation. The Crimson Tide are undefeated in the tourney, so the Gators will have to win two straight to head to the Championship series. Baylor will have to do the same against top-ranked Arizona State, and after such a long weekend for Baylor, you have to imagine it will be an uphill battle. Then again, with everything on the line, it’s hard to tell what can happen.

The full listings for today’s games (all times ET):

Alabama v. Florida – 1pm (ESPN)
Baylor v. Arizona State – 3:30pm (ESPN)
Alabama v. Florida (if needed) – 7pm (ESPN2)
Baylor v. Arizona State (if needed) – 9:30pm (ESPN2)

It’s a busy day in Oklahoma City as six of the eight teams left in bracket play at the 2011 Women’s College World Series fight for the opportunity to play either Alabama or Arizona State in the semi-final match-ups. It’s double elimination at this stage and every team that plays today has already lost one game apiece. Some teams have yet to win, however, so they will have to play twice in one day to make it to tomorrow’s semi-final.

The games start early for the Big 12, whose entrants have endured a miserable start. Oklahoma State faces California in the first game of the day and the winner moves on to face Florida. Oklahoma and Missouri face off this afternoon and the winner plays late tonight against Baylor.

Full listings and schedule are below for Saturday’s slate. If you’re a softball fan, you have lots of take in today.

Saturday’s 2011 WCWS Schedule (all times ET):
California v. Oklahoma State – 12pm – ESPN
Oklahoma v. Missouri – 2:30pm – ESPN
Florida v. Cal/OSU winner – 7pm – ESPN2
Baylor v. Okla/Mizzou winner – 9:30pm – ESPN2

In the most dramatic fashion, Women’s College World Series favorite Arizona State advanced with a walk off victory while No. 2 Alabama shut out their opponent to move on in bracket play as the lone remaining undefeated teams in the tournament. That means that Florida and Baylor both took their first loss and now face elimination with their next loss.

Arizona State defeated No. 4 Florida 6-5, winning in dramatic fashion as Annie Lockwood drove in the winning run on an RBI single with the bases loaded to advance. Lockwood also homered earlier in the game. The Sun Devils led through three and seemed unstoppable until the Gators pounced on ASU’s Dallas Escobedo for five runs in the top of the fourth inning and it was back and forth after that until Lockwood brought it home.

Meanwhile Baylor was defeated, 3-0, on another shutout by Alabama’s dynamite pitching combo of Kelsi Dunne and Jackie Traina. It was the same story against California and it seems like no team might be able to touch their pitching if it keeps up like this. Alabama’s Kaila Hunt and Kayla Braud both had two hits in the win.

Both ASU and Alabama get the day off while the rest must continue to fight for the chance to make it into the Championship series which begins Monday. Baylor plays at 9:30 ET tonight against the winner of Oklahoma/Missouri, while Florida faces the winner of California/Oklahoma State.

As the only Big 12 team playing today (and the only Big 12 team with a win so far in the NCAA Division I Softball Championship), No. 11 Baylor faces a showdown with No. 2 Alabama for the chance to build some security in bracket play. Specifically, the winner of this match will be the only undefeated team in Bracket 1 in a round that features double elimination. Simply put, it’s a major step toward the championship series, which begins on Monday.

Yesterday, Baylor relied heavily on the arm of Whitney Canion to get past Oklahoma State in extra innings, 1-0. Canion pitched a complete game shutout, allowing only 3 hits in 8 innings while striking out 10 along the way. In all she threw 119 pitches. Kelsi Kettler hit her second home run of the season to provide the only offense of the entire game.

Alabama won by the same score, 1-0, over a 7th ranked California team that drew a difficult first round match-up. Kelsi Dunne and Jackie Traina combined on a one-hit shutout and struck out a combined 13 batters between them.

Tonight’s game gets under way at 7pm ET and can be seen on ESPN.

The 2011 Women’s College World Series is underway with the top teams rolling so far, justifying their rankings and proving why certain schools are a consistent force in NCAA softball. After second-ranked Alabama shut out California yesterday, the Crimson Tide take on No. 11 Baylor today in the winner’s match-up of Bracket 1, while California meets Oklahoma State in a must-win scenario with the loser heading home.

Top-ranked Arizona State also rolled against Oklahoma in last night’s contest and faces No. 4 Florida in the strongest match-up of the day. Florida beat Missouri handily last night, sending the No. 5 Tigers to face fellow Big 12 opponent Oklahoma in the other must-win contest of Bracket 2.

The full schedule of Friday and Saturday’s games are listed below (Eastern time) and all games are available on ESPN on TV or ESPN3.com online:

Friday, June 3
Alabama v. Baylor – 7pm
Arizona State v. Florida – 9:30pm

Saturday, June 4
California v. Oklahoma State – 12pm
Oklahoma v. Missouri – 2:30pm

Every player and coach involved in the 2011 Women’s College World Series knew that the Pac-10 was the conference to beat. They also knew that the higher seeds are obviously the most favored. But what transpired yesterday in four games in Oklahoma City unfolded in the worst possible way for the four Big 12 schools participating in the eight team bracket in the 2011 NCAA Division I Softball Championship.

The teams that rolled were the favored teams, but with half of the field from the Big 12, the hopes were that some team could break through to the next round. Nothing is officially out yet, given that it takes double elimination in bracket play, but Missouri, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State all lost yesterday with Baylor as the only win – and that was even in a match-up of two Big 12 teams. Simply put, the favorites rolled and the Big 12 looked sour.

Today either Missouri or Oklahoma will go home after playing each other, since one of the teams will have their second loss and an early exit from the tourney. Oklahoma State and Baylor fight for their lives against Alabama and California respectively. Anything is possible in every game, but the Big 12’s first full step into the tournament was a crippling one for sure.

California’s Jolene Henderson pitched an incredible game — exactly the type of performance she knew was needed to get past No. 2 seed Alabama in the opening game of the Women’s College World Series. Yet even that wasn’t enough to counter the overwhelming pitching of Alabama’s Kelsi Dunne, who combined with Jackie Traina on a one-hit shutout of a typically powerful California squad.

That’s exactly the level of competition each team should expect among the final eight, where a lone run can propel one team forward while leaving another out in the cold. In this instance, it was second baseman Kaila Hunt’s RBI single in the bottom of the second that gave the Crimson Tide an unsuspecting winning run. The rest was left to Traina, who struck out 11 of the 19 batters she faced over six innings.

California’s tournament isn’t over in the double elimination bracket play, but they’re certainly on the edge and need their offense to come alive. They will face the loser of the Baylor versus Oklahoma State contest, while Alabama will face the winner tomorrow night.

Few collegiate sports, or pros for that matter, see the type of dominance displayed by the Pac-10 conference when it comes to women’s softball and the Women’s College World Series. So while much of the attention is on the BIg 12 for placing half of the eight teams in this year’s WCWS, the reality is that the road to the title should still favor Arizona State or California if history has anything to say about it.

Consider this: the Pac-10 conference has claimed a total of 22 of 28 WCWS titles since 1982. Michigan was the last team to claim the title as a non Pac-10 school and that was back in 2005. Before that, it was Oklahoma in 2000. Simply put, the Pac-10 is simply expected to win the NCAA Division I Softball Championship each and every season. Why? That’s how it’s always been.

Last year, UCLA won the championship, and that came against fellow Pac-10 power Arizona State. This year, ASU is the favored team to take it all, not only because of the conference’s winning tradition but they’re also the No. 1 overall team in the country. It’s possible, despite having two of eight teams, for the Pac-10 to finish with the final two teams once again, given the pairings in Bracket Play.

Every year presents new opportunities and several other schools are vying for the chance to unseat the Pac-10. But to do so is a tall order given the conference’s sheer dominance throughout the last three decades.

Tigers vs. Gators. Sounds like something from an animal kingdom movie. In reality, it’s the matchup of No. 5 and No. 6 nationally in tonight’s opening round of the 2011 Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.

The Big 12 champion Missouri Tigers (46-7), ranked fifth in the country according to the most recent NCAA Division I college softball rankings, will meet the No. 6 Florida Gators (47-9) in the late game tonight at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium. Ninth-ranked Oklahoma is matched up with Arizona State (50-6), the overall top seed in split-pool, double-elimination tournament, in the early-evening contest immediately preceding Missouri’s game.

This is the Tiger’s third consecutive appearance in the Women’s College World Series. The previous two trips to Oklahoma City ended in speedy disappointment, with Missouri being the first team eliminated after losing its first two World Series games. The Tigers are hoping the third time is charm as they return virtually everyone from last year’s World Series roster.

“You bring a certain level of experience and poise with you into the World Series with you now and a certain level of frustration and resolve from what we have not done in the past,” said Missouri coach Ehren Earlywine.

The X-factor this year that wasn’t there a year ago is one Chelsea Thomas, who just happens to be one of the best pitchers in the country. The outstanding redshirt-sophomore mowed through opposing hitters all season long like a newly sharpened blade through a week’s worth of spring grass growth. She has recorded 31 wins this season, just one shy of the school record, against only six losses and a super-stingy 0.83 ERA.

Thomas was with the team at the WCWS a year ago, but forced to watch from the sidelines, recovering from a stress fracture in her pitching forearm. “It feels great to be back here in Oklahoma City and not sit on a bucket and watch,” Thomas said in an interview with Mike DeArmond of The Kansas City Star.

Although she was unable to contribute in the postseason last year, Thomas took the Tigers’ quick elimination from last year’s World Series personally. Then-sophomore Kristin Nottelmann stepped up in Thomas’ absence last year and helped lead Missouri to its second straight trip to the World Series with a 24-9 season record, but she wasn’t able to get the job done at the season’s final stop. Thomas felt deep in her heart that things might have been different if she were able to play.

But that was a year ago. Heading into this year’s WCWS, Earlywine tried to put this team’s situation into perspective. “Everybody says, ‘Look, we got Thomas this year,’” he said. “But we didn’t lose last year because of Nottelmann. We lost last year because we couldn’t hit.” Said another way, it probably didn’t make that much difference who was on the mound for Mizzou this time a year ago.

Needless to say, no one on the Tigers’ roster is arguably more fired up about this year’s College World Series than their star pitcher, who is a candidate for national Player of the Year.

“You can’t dwell in the past,” Thomas said. “It was something that I couldn’t control. They know that I would have loved to be in the circle for them. But I get a second chance this year, and we’re going to take advantage of it.”

That second chance begins tonight.

After all of the conference tournaments, Regionals and Super Regionals, the 2011 NCAA Division 1 Softball Championship is finally here. The Women’s College World Series is down to the final eight teams — four of which are from the Big 12 — and by next Wednesday, a new winner will be crowned.

The WCWS will move quickly once it begins with a double elimination set-up throughout what is known as bracket play. That includes head-to-head contests that run from today through Sunday, June 5. Then a best-of-three Championship Series begins on Monday and the winner is declared by Wednesday night (unless the winner takes the first two games in the series). All games are being played in Oklahoma City at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium.

You can find each game being played on ESPN or ESPN2 and online at ESPN3.com. Today’s complete schedule is below (all times Eastern):

Thursday, June 2
California vs. Alabama – 1pm
Oklahoma State vs. Baylor – 3:30pm
Oklahoma vs. Arizona State – 7pm
Missouri vs. Florida – 9:30pm

The winners of the eight Super Regionals in the NCAA Women’s Softball Championship earned a spot in the Women’s College World Series beginning Friday in Oklahoma City. Four of those teams are from the Big 12 Conference and two are from the state of Oklahoma.

Missouri, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Baylor comprise half of the WCWS field, the first time this has happened in Big 12 history. The other four teams competing in the split-pool, double-elimination tournament are No. 1 seed Arizona State, Alabama, California and Florida. Arizona State won a national title in 2002 and the Cal Bears won it all in 2008.

The Big 12 came within one out of having five teams in the tournament. Texas A&M was up by one run over the tourney’s overall top-seed Arizona State in the home half of the seventh inning when the Sun Devils erupted for two runs to steal the victory. The Big 12 qualified eight of its 10 participating schools in softball for the NCAA Championship and five advanced to the Super Regional round.

“It frustrated me and motivated me,” said Baylor coach Glennn Moore about the lack of national recognition and respect the conference has received this year in softball. “As the season went on, it became apparent the Big 12 is the toughest it’s been in my seven years at Baylor.”

“I don’t think the experts have paid much attention to the Big 12,” Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso said. “We just quietly went along, played good nonconference schedules and then beat each other up and made each other better in conference play.” Gasso’s 2000 OU team won the national championship, and the Sooners returned to the WCWS four consecutive years after that.

The four Big 12 schools are split up, with two in each of the four-team pools. No. 9-ranked Oklahoma, who plays top-seed Arizona State in its opening round game, and Missouri, featuring national Player of the Year candidate Chelsea Thomas, are in one pool. Oklahoma State and Baylor are in the other pool and will play each other in the opening round.

Missouri is the highest ranked team nationally out of the Big 12, coming into the WCWS at No. 5. The Tigers will face No. 4-ranked Florida in their first game. The final first-round game matches No. 2-ranked Alabama and California.

Big 12 softball coaches voted to discontinue the postseason conference championship tournament after the 2010 season. Ironically, this year’s WCWS constitutes a mini-Big 12 Championship with four conference teams vying for the national championship.