MVC Softball Tournament

[flyingMoose]

http://www.mvc-sports.com/liveEvents/liveEvents.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=7600&KEY=&DB_OEM_ID=7600&DB_LANG=&IN_SUBSCRIBER_CONTENT=

All but the championship game can be watched live for free.

[flyingMoose]

Indiana State 3-0 Illinois State

Darcy Wood retires the first nineteen batters she faces. She allows two singles in the seventh, but the Sycamores hold on. The play Drake later today.

[flyingMoose]

Missouri State 2-3( 8 ) Bradley

Bradley gets a bases loaded one-out single in the bottom of the eighth to win. Ashley Birdsong was the winning pitcher. Bradley plays Northern Iowa later tonight.

[flyingMoose]

Indiana State 3-2 Drake

Bradley 4-2 Northern Iowa

So Indiana State (#8 ) and Bradley (#6) (I know, we don't want to know about it) advance to play Creighton and Southern Illinois respectively tomorrow afternoon.

[flyingMoose]

Indiana State 4-5 Creighton

Creighton scores five in the fifth - a run-scoring single, a three-run homer and a solo homer - to take the lead. Indiana State got their first hits and all of their runs in the sixth, including a three-run blast. This half-inning was highlighted by the (apparent) third out being made on a throw to first. After the teams has switched places in the field, the umpires got together and reversed the out call on appeal from the Sycamore coach, ruling that the first baseman juggled the throw for an error. The homer followed.

Tara Oltman scuffled a bit for Creighton. Though not allowing any hits until the sixth, she walked four and struck out only four.

Interestingly, the logo for Creighton in the LiveStats application was not a Jay but a buffalo with CU superimposed. :)

[flyingMoose]

Bradley 5-3 Southern Illinois

A three-run homer and a two-run double accounted for the Bradley runs. They took a 3-1 the lead on the homer in the third, stretched it to 5-1 in the sixth before the Salukis scored again in the seventh.

Southern Illinois does not have a go-to pitcher (they used three today) that you can ride in a tournament - like Bradley is doing with Ashley Birdsong - and it may have caught up with them today.

So tomorrow at 3pm it is Bradley and Creighton - Ashley Birdsong and Tara Oltman. From the MVC press release, it appears the game is live on Fox Sports - Channel 34 on Cox in Wichita.

No Valley team was receiving votes in latest edition of either college softball poll, though I could envision Creighton getting an at-large bid if they do not win the tournament.

[flyingMoose]

BRADLEY!! 2-0 Creighton

Bradley rides two solo homers and a two-hitter from Ashley Birdsong to upset Creighton and get the Valley's automatic bid to the NCAA Softball Tournament. Bradley also had an outstanding defensive play as the center fielder reached over the fence to prevent a game-tying two-run homer in the fourth. Tara Oltman only gave up three hits for Creighton, but two of them were over the fence.

This is the first time the host school has won the Valley tournament. And Bradley did it as the sixth seed. They have now won nine in a row with Birdsong pitching all 64 innings involved.

Creighton still has hopes for an at-large bid to the NCAAs.

[flyingMoose]

Bradley opens the NCAA Tournament against #15 seed DePaul on May 15 at the Columbia Regional. Missouri and Illinois are the other teams in the regional.

Creighton does not make the tournament.

Tim Walton's Florida Gators are the #1 seed in the tournament with a record of 55-3.

[WuDrWu]

Man, do we miss Coach Walton.

[Shocker85]

Man, do we miss Coach Walton.

The "big fish" that got away. Can't blame him, though. Move from MVC to SEC softball = no brainer.

--'85.