Re: ESPN Lady Cajuns Team Capsule
ESPN breakdown of the field...
Florida in search of history in Oklahoma City
By Graham Hays
Updated: May 27, 2008
Is Arizona or Florida the team to beat in Oklahoma City? Which players should you be watching? Is this the most intriguing field of all time? Here's a preview of the Women's College World Series.
Are the defending champions the team to beat in Oklahoma City?
Take a team coming off back-to-back national championships, give it six returning regulars in the batting order, one of the most highly touted collections of recruits in the country and the ace who emerged as the college game's most recognizable face last June at the World Series. Now factor in that by the time it returns to Oklahoma City to try for a third consecutive championship for the first time in program history, the team is averaging nearly a run and a half more per game than it did last season -- thanks in part to more than 30 additional home runs -- and has an almost identical team ERA.
Wait, so why isn't Arizona the favorite to add yet another trophy to its spoils?
The Arizona stat sheet had an Enron-like quality to it for much of the season, with all the glittering numbers out of sync with the results on the field. Now the Wildcats return to Oklahoma City as the No. 7 seed, with a 41-17 overall record that can be labeled modest only by Tucson's high standards. Perhaps not coincidentally, they also return without Mike Candrea, who is away coaching the United States Olympic team. And yet interim coach Larry Ray may feel he's about to get the last laugh. Since a 9-8 loss against Arizona State on April 19, a result which gave the rival Sun Devils a clean sweep of the season series for the first time, the Wildcats are 12-3. In their last 10 games, including Pac-10 games against Cal and Stanford and subsequent runs through the Hempstead Regional and Tucson Super Regional, they've outscored opponents 50-6.
Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City is a hitters' park, with waist-high outfield fences that are just 190 feet from home plate down the lines (compared to 200 feet in many campus stadiums). That plays to Arizona's strengths at the plate, but defending the title may ultimately hinge on Taryne Mowatt's ability to keep the ball in the ballpark -- or at least keep the bases empty when the ball does take off. Mowatt allowed four home runs in three games against Oklahoma in the Tucson Super Regional but all four were solo shots despite the fact she also walked seven batters in 20 innings.
The team to beat? Maybe not this year. Tough to beat? That seems increasingly accurate.
Will Florida become the first team to eclipse 70 wins?
The tournament's No. 1 overall seed tied the NCAA record with win No. 67 when it clinched the Gainesville Super Regional against California. To reach 70 wins, the Gators will either have to reach the championship series out of the winner's bracket or come out of the loser's bracket to force a winner-take-all game on Sunday for a spot in the championship series. But if Arizona isn't the team to beat, is Florida?
As the top seed, the Gators seem to deserve that label. Sure, they rely on a number of freshmen in key roles, but that's a trait they share with just about the entire field in Oklahoma City. Where they differ is that unlike any team but unseeded entrants Louisiana-Lafayette and Virginia Tech, nobody else on their roster has been to a World Series, either.
Not unlike Michigan in 2005, Florida enters the World Series with the unusual mix of top-seeded expectations and a chance to play with a chip on its shoulder and prove skeptics wrong. It certainly worked out all right for the Wolverines.
Which team comes off the most impressive performance in a super regional?
Arizona State should be the most rested team in Oklahoma City. After hitting the road for the opening round en route to the World Series in each of the past two seasons, the Sun Devils were able to play at home in both the regional and super regional rounds this year. And they gave themselves plenty of time to catch a few extra minutes of sleep in their own beds, run-ruling their opponents in three of five wins. All told, the Pac-10 champions rolled over the competition by a 32-1 margin, including multiple wins against Hawaii and Northwestern teams with plenty of postseason experience of their own.
After a slow start in a 2-0 win against Stony Brook in the regional opener, Arizona State's offense hit its stride. In her only official at-bat in seven trips to the plate against Northwestern in the Tempe Super Regional, Katie Cochran climbed the ladder against Lauren Delaney's rise ball and drove it out of the park. The Wildcats walked Cochran on four pitches all four times she came to the plate in the clincher, but the four hitters who followed her in the batting order combined for two doubles, a home run, four runs scored and nine RBIs.
The Sun Devils' offensive production was almost overkill given the way Katie Burkhart worked in the circle. Arizona State's senior ace allowed just five hits in 13 innings against Northwestern, recorded 26 of a possible 39 outs by strikeout and didn't walk a single batter.
Who are five players worth putting your day on hold to watch?
Brittany Rogers, CF, Alabama: The NCAA leader in stolen bases this season, Rogers scored on a sacrifice fly to right-center in the Tuscaloosa Super Regional -- from second base. A week earlier, the senior came up with an inside-the-park home run on a ball that bounced on its way through the infield. If reports surfaced that she flipped a light switch and was in bed before the room was dark, a la Cool Papa Bell, it wouldn't be entirely unbelievable. And with a .507 on-base percentage, she gets plenty of chances to run.
Ashley Brignac, P, Louisiana-Lafayette: It's fitting that in the year of the freshman pitcher in college softball, a whole host of the precocious hurlers will be on hand in Oklahoma City. Odds are four years won't be enough time to produce a clear answer on the class ace, but Brignac has the kind of crowd-pleasing power-pitching repertoire that will earn her a legion of supporters between now and 2011 (if she doesn't split the Ragin' Cajuns vote with teammate and classmate Donna Bourgeois).
Megan Gibson, 1B/P, Texas A&M: It has been a few years since college softball had a pitching ace help her own cause on a championship team, but leave it to a player from the heart of football country to restore the honor in playing both ways. Pressed into an expanded role in the circle in her senior season when an injury felled classmate Amanda Scarborough, all Gibson did was win Big 12 Player of the Year and Big 12 Pitcher of the Year, becoming the first player ever to win both awards in a single season. So far, she's driven in more runs (48) than she's been charged with in the circle (37).
Jennifer Schroeder, C, UCLA: A junior who enters the World Series batting under .200 (.192) isn't the most recognizable name in college softball. But by the time the Bruins head back to Los Angeles, she will be the game's most recognizable voice to anyone within earshot of home plate. And in Schroeder's case, earshot includes most of metropolitan Oklahoma City. As entertaining as Schroeder is simply as a marvel of perpetual chatter, she also plays an important role keeping Anjelica Selden locked in from the circle.
Angela Tincher: There may be a few fans at Hall of Fame Stadium echoing the sentiments of the commoner in "Braveheart" who disputes William Wallace's identity by dismissively contending, "William Wallace is seven feet tall." Tincher doesn't tower over opponents like Monica Abbott, Cat Osterman or Jennie Finch. But the reason her teammates will follow her anywhere, including all the way to Oklahoma City, becomes rather obvious the first time her rise rockets skyward or her drop digs into the dirt.
Is this the best field of all time?
Instant history is a wonderful thing, but even if this isn't the deepest field of all time, it's the most intriguing.
The opening day of the World Series offers one guaranteed intraconference showdown when Arizona and UCLA put their 18 national championships on the line and renew the game's premier rivalry. And yet for the first time in more than two decades, neither Mike Candrea nor Sue Enquist will be in a dugout in Oklahoma City.
Beyond the Bruins and Wildcats, if things play out in not altogether improbable fashion, Sunday's elimination games could end up split between an SEC rematch of Alabama and Florida and a Pac-10 rematch of Arizona State and either Arizona or UCLA.
In something of a surprise, the game's best pitcher will once again be on hand. Tincher was a bit of a long shot to follow in the footsteps of Osterman and Abbott, but she and the Hokies will be present and accounted for when the festivities begin.
There's also a sleeper with more than a realistic chance of playing spoiler in Louisiana-Lafayette. And we haven't even gotten to Texas A&M, with player of the year candidate Megan Gibson hoping to lead the Aggies to a third national championship.
It's going to be a fun week in Oklahoma's capital city.
Graham Hays is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. E-mail him at Graham.Hays@espn3.com.
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Originally Posted by CajunCherokee
Re: ESPN Lady Cajuns Team Capsule
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