2017 NCAA Softball Tournament

[flyingMoose]

So apparently there's a secondary postseason tournament that Illinois State is playing in. Don't know anything about it but this is the initial year. Wonder why WSU didn't try playing in it.

There are qualification criteria. I didn't bother to examine them close enough to see if the Shockers qualified.

[flyingMoose]

The WCWS opens Thursday in Oklahoma City.

The Super Regionals had a new format this year, being played over three (if necessary) days rather than playing a DH (if necessary) on the second day. The results of the best-two-of-three Super Regionals are:

Alabama 1-2 Florida
The Gators, #1 National Seed, lost the first game but came back with two wins.

Texas A&M 2-1 Tennessee
After losing the first game, the Aggies were down 4-1 in the second game and 3-0 in the third game but came back to win both.

Ole Miss 0-2 UCLA
Brittany Finney, the Carroll alum, pitched very well but lost the second game of the series by a score of 1-0.

LSU 2-1 Florida State
The Tigers are another team that had to win the second and third games to make it to OKC. Emily Griggs of Maize HS is the center fielder and leadoff hitter for LSU.

Kentucky 0-2 Oregon

Utah 1-2 Washington
Nothing to do with this Super, but Kara Foster, a Derby HS grad, holds the career HR record at Utah with 64. Her last year was 2010.

Oklahoma 2-0 Auburn
The defending champion Sooners swept their Super on the road. Auburn was their opponent in the championship series in last year's WCWS.

Baylor 2-1 Arizona
The Bears scored four in the bottom of the sixth to win the second game 6-4 and then hit a three-run homer in the top of the seventh to win the third game 6-5. Arizona was the #2 National Seed.


LSU v UCLA is the only first round game to not feature conference opponents. (The above is in bracket order.) Four of the winners of their Super lost the first game.

[WuShock16]

3 SEC, 3 PAC-12, 2 Big 12. Yippee. 🙄

[flyingMoose]

#1 Florida and #10 Oklahoma win their brackets and play their best two-of-three series beginning Monday.

[shockerfanmas]

Umpiring in the tournament has been absolutely brutal. Inconsistency on strike zones, inconsistency on obstruction rule in which UCLA got screwed on it in the LSU game, runner running clearly out of the baseline but being called safe (believe that was the Washington-Oklahoma game) and then today in the Oklahoma -Oregon game, a foul ball that Ray Charles could have called was ruled fair, and on top of that there should have been an interference call as the batter was running inside the line. Absolutely embarrassing umpiring all week that really took away from the play on the field. Pac 12 teams got screwed the hardest and Oklahoma benefited the most. Go figure. The NCAA continues to show why they are a complete joke when it comes to leadership.

Nothing against the Sooners, but I hope Florida absolutely boatraces them in 2 games because they probably shouldn't have even made the WCWS, let alone the championship series

[flyingMoose]

... and then today in the Oklahoma-Oregon game, a foul ball that Ray Charles could have called was ruled fair, and on top of that there should have been an interference call as the batter was running inside the line.

This time I will only quibble with these statements. :) I have watched the Replay several times, and I will offer my interpretation of the event. The home plate umpire gives a Safe signal - he does not point Fair - and gives his signal before the catcher ever picks up the ball. I can only understand the Safe signal as No, the bat did not hit the ball (which would be a form of interference and the batter would be out). You sometimes see a base umpire give a Safe signal when a runner runs in front of a fielder when a grounder is nearing the fielder - the Safe signal indicating, No, there was no interference by the runner.

But then I never see the plate umpire point Fair, and this ball is clearly close enough to the line to warrant a signal. Did the umpire rotate too far into fair territory, allowing the catcher to block his view of her picking up the ball? That is my best guess, but it is only a guess.

You may have noticed that there was no running lane. I am told that in the last year or two, the NCAA got rid of it, and do not use it to determine if there was interference by the runner on her way to first. It is umpire judgment whether the runner interferes with the catch by the fielder (not the throw). This was a wild, errant throw that was uncatchable by the fielder. Hence, no interference.

... Absolutely embarrassing umpiring all week that really took away from the play on the field. ... The NCAA continues to show why they are a complete joke when it comes to leadership.

I am certainly not going to claim this has been the hallmark of softball umpiring, but they don't have the replays and camera angles that we get to see. 1) An umpire positions herself for the anticipated rundown play, but the runner goes around the catcher instead. We have a camera angle looking down the third base line, but she has to look across/through the third base line to judge if the runner has deviated out of her base path by three feet. 2) Obstruction calls. In high school, you have to have possession of the ball to block the path of the runner. We learned from the announcers that the NCAA also has "about to catch" as part of their determination of obstruction/no obstruction. That additional element of judgment has to complicate the life of an NCAA umpire. The first obstruction that went against UCLA had to be a total mistake. The second one that went against them appeared to be correct. IMO the NCAA should get rid of their NIH syndrome and adopt what other Rules Sets say, dropping the "about to catch."

[wsunet]

Anything new on the softball front now that the NCAA tournament is over. Transfers in/out. Coaching changes..

[flyingMoose]

Anything new on the softball front now that the NCAA tournament is over. Transfers in/out. Coaching changes..

Along those lines, Macklin Hitz is now an assistant coach at Western Nebraska CC. As a refresher, here is the announcement of the 2017-18 signing class of six players. No new roster for the fall has been posted to tell us about other roster changes.