That last out…phew.
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Didn’t see Canady til the 5th so that was a pleasant surprise. UCLA sat their ace til they were down 4-0 as well. Sarah Ladd had herself a game.
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If Utah could sweep this series, they would become the FAVORITE to win the final Pac-12 Regular Season Championship. This is because of next week’s matchups. Yes, Utah has to play at USC next week. However, USC is NOT the team this year that they’ve been in the past. They also aren’t even playing on their campus this year, but rather a half hour away in Irvine, as their current stadium is under construction. Utah’s primary competition for the championship are Arizona and Oregon State. Who happen to also be PLAYING EACH OTHER NEXT WEEK. That guarantees additional losses for at least one of them. If Utah gets to 20 conference wins, I think they win the conference championship. If Utah sweeps Arizona then gets to 20 wins, Arizona would only be able to finish tied at 20-10 because they’d be guaranteed 10 conference losses. Utah would earn the tiebreaker in that scenario via winning the weekend series against the Cats. If Utah sweeps them, Arizona then would only be able to get to 20 league wins if they were to then SWEEP Oregon State next week. They could win the series against OSU and STILL not catch Utah. If they do win the series against the Beavers, that would lead Utah to finish ahead of Oregon State as well because OSU would only be able to get to 19 conference wins, not 20 even though they’d only be guaranteed at least 10 conference losses. This is because one of their games (vs. USC) was canceled and is not being made up. Basically, Utah can sew up the championship by sweeping Arizona and winning at least 2 of 3 at USC.
UCLA - Utah Pac-12 Softball Tournament Championship, 8p MT
Live Stream (ESPN2)
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Softball came up short against UCLA 1-2. Nonetheless, great job.
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D-I NCAA Softball Selection Show, TODAY 5p MT ESPN2
UPDATE: 2-1 Loss, Utes move to the Elimination Bracket, game tomorrow 11:30a MT
South Carolina - Utah, NCAA D-I Softball Tournament - Durham Regional
TODAY 10a MT, ESPNU
Live Stream | Live Stats | Bracket
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South Carolina - Utah
NCAA D-I Softball Tournament - Durham Regional
TODAY 11a MT, SEC Network
Live Stream | Live Stats | Bracket
The Utes need to get their bats going. The game yesterday against Morgan St, they left a bunch of runners on base and I think made three outs on the basepaths. They still got the 1-0 win over a team that had to go on a long winning streak in their conference tournament to even make the field. Not so good. Thank God the Utes pitching has been great.
The Utes were supposed to play SoCar yesterday evening, but rain took the game out. If they beat SoCar they play Duke, probably later today, to advance.
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Free stream for South Carolina - Utah
This is the last Pacific Conference tournament we will play in for some time.
Utah - USC 21May | Oregon - Utah 22May
Game times 3:30p MT on all Pac-12 Network channels
Utah still has a path forward even with their loss today. They need beat Oregon. Oregon State needs to beat Stanford. And Washington needs to beat Arizona. If all that happens, here would be the pool standings through 2 days:
Pool A)
Cal 1-0
Washington 1-1
Arizona 0-1
Pool B)
Oregon State 1-0
Stanford 1-1
ASU 0-1
Pool C)
USC 1-0
Utah 1-1
Oregon 0-1
Then, on Thursday, the following would need to happen:
Oregon State beats ASU
USC beats Oregon
Cal beats Arizona
If all that happens, here would be the pool standings:
Pool A)
Cal 2-0
Washington 1-1
Arizona 0-2
Pool B)
Oregon State 2-0
Stanford 1-1
ASU 0-2
Pool C)
USC 2-0
Utah 1-1
Oregon 0-2
Which makes these the overall standings:
- Arizona 33-22 (0-2) (eliminated)
- Oregon State 43-13 (2-0) (Pool B champs)
- Oregon 37-18 (0-2) (eliminated)
- USC 30-27 (2-0) (Pool C champs)
- ASU 32-26 (0-2) (eliminated)
- Cal 36-18 (2-0) (Pool A champs)
- Utah 33-22 (1-1) (Wild Card)
- Stanford 21-33 (1-1) (eliminated)
- Washington 20-30-1 (1-1) (eliminated)
Oregon State, USC, and Cal would all advance as champs of their pools, but UTAH would also advance as the Wild Card team, as they would be the highest seeded of the 1-1 teams. If any of these remaining games don’t play out as stated above, Utah is eliminated because there’s no other scenario for them to finish as the highest seeded 1-1 team. It would lead to these semifinal match ups:
Oregon State 43-13 vs. Utah 33-22
USC 30-27 vs. Cal 36-18
This one hurts.
Effects are deeper than just baseball. My son was on a zoom call with his coaches today and they plan to carry 32-34 players at full scholarship, up from 11.7 scholarships for 40 players. Football gets 105 scholarships, softball 25 and volleyball 18 scholarships. I think basketball gets and additional two scholarships as well.
College Baseball’s Golden Age receives jolt with more scholarships on the way • D1Baseball
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Texas Tech softball just inked the Ace Stanford pitcher. Her NIL deal is reportedly in the 7 figures per year.
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