Basketball, Softball

Basketball Championship

Congratulations to Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks for winning the NCAA Women's Basketball tournament.  South Carolina took the lead in the 2nd quarter, but really pulled away from Mississippi State late in the 4th to win the championship game 67-55.

I had the pleasure of watching Dawn Staley coach at her previous gig at Temple University, where she was clearly a great coach, but working in a program that either wouldn't, or couldn't, put forth the resources to support the team's progression.  When it was announced that she was taking the South Carolina head coaching position, I had a suspicion that she was headed for great success.

The SEC had the championship locked up, of course, by having both teams in the championship game being SEC teams.  There was some discussion on twitter about the absence of Morgan "Itty Bitty" William in the 4th quarter for Mississippi State, with many thinking it was just an issue of a bad matchup.

Softball

Nicole "The Poof" Pufahl was the star of the 2nd game of the Louisville vs Notre Dame series this
weekend, but it wasn't enough as the Cards fell to the Irish 6-4.  Defensive struggles can be pointed to as the 'cause of the loss, with the Cards chalking up 4 errors in the game.

Overall, the scoring in this one came late, the Cards picked up a run in the 1st inning, when Caitlin Ferguson got on base with a walk, advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Maryssa Becker, and scored on a Pufahl single.  No other runs would score in the game until the Irish put up 3 in the 4th inning, 2 more in the 5th, and another in the 6th.

The Cards clawed one back in the 6th with a lead-off home-run by Pufahl.

An exciting, but disappointing, finish to this one, when back-to-back two-out walks put Becker and Jamie Soles ("The New Pride of New Egypt, New Jersey") on base to score on a double by, who else, Pufahl.  Another walk to Tiarra Sanabria put the tieing runner on base.  Alison "Mike" Szydlowski came to the plate, and hit a strong shot out to left center on a full-count 9th pitch.  A great play, and great foot speed, by the left fielder for Notre Dame ended the game.

The 3rd game of the series is tonight at 7pm.  Notre Dame has already won the series, but both games have been close, and UofL will be looking to make a statement by taking one back.

-- JMcA