Women's College World Series: A must-see

I was up late last night watching a very tight game two of the WCWS championship series. Tennessee had won the first game and so this was an elimination game for Arizona. Tennessee pitcher Monica Abbott was on and though a few Arizona batters got hits off her, she was able to keep her no runs against streak going through regulation. She has not allowed one run in the entire world series. Arizona pitcher Taryne Mowatt doesn't have Abbott's velocity, but she does have a very effective change-up. And she, and her defense, got out of some sticky situations including a bases-loaded, one out, inning late in the game.

Tennessee had more chances in extra innings (of which there were 3) to get a run across the plate and take home the championship--the first in school history. But they just couldn't do it before Arizona finally was able to execute their small ball game plan and use their speed on the base pads to get a runner across home plate.

This is all to say that Game 3 is tonight on ESPN2* and if it's anything like last night, it should be very exciting. I am not rooting for one team over the other. Tennessee has a female coach but she is a co-head coach with her husband and of course Tennessee insists on sticking with their ridiculous Lady Vols nickname. And Arizona's staff is predominantly male and the women on the team are very femme-y and talk about doing their hair and make-up before games. But both teams are very talented and have members that will be on the Olympic team next year.

*Actual viewing of the game on ESPN2 got annoying, though because there were constant problems with the audio and video that made it cut out or stutter. Most of the tension I felt was not over who would win but if I would actually get to see the winning play. So I emailed ESPN and complained noting that technical difficulties that appear during other coverage--say that of Major League Baseball games--seem to get remedied almost immediately. No response yet.