Candrea, Arizona win 7th WCWS Title
In a best of 3 series, Arizona defeats Northwestern in a 2 game sweep for the WCWS Championship. In the first game of the series, Northwestern committed errors that I never expected to see in the championship games. It seemed that Arizona's speed threw the Northwestern defense off kilter just enough to cause problems. There was a collision in the short-stop alley on a pop up (the ball drops), rushed throws by the 3rd baseman that get away at 1st, and mental errors like the CF jogging in after making the 2nd out on a fly ball. The Arizona baserunner easily gets from 2nd to 3rd tagging up on that play.
On top of all of that, Arizona's offense simply came to play on both nights. The top of the batting order was superb and talk about execution and "timely hits" with people in scoring position. Then on the other side, there was Northwestern, who failed to score even 1 run in the two games. Last night, twice they manage three straight hits and fail to push a run across the plate. In the 3rd inning, they had bases loaded, no outs, down by just one, the conference player of the year up to bat and still, nothing.
While not as exciting as last years 3 game series in which Michigan won the championship, I still enjoyed watching. There were tons of opportunities to talk with my 9-yr-old about the different situations and for her to learn from watching.
For example: why you clear the basepath as a 2nd baseman trying to turn the double, why it's more dangerous to dive head first into a base, and how pitchers don't just stand on the mound and watch the action. It also reminded me that even elite athletes make mistakes and I have to keep the game in perspective when working with 10U players. :)
Read about the series at ESPN or search Google news for "Arizona Softball" for more stories.
Technorati Tags: softball, Sports, entertainment, college
On top of all of that, Arizona's offense simply came to play on both nights. The top of the batting order was superb and talk about execution and "timely hits" with people in scoring position. Then on the other side, there was Northwestern, who failed to score even 1 run in the two games. Last night, twice they manage three straight hits and fail to push a run across the plate. In the 3rd inning, they had bases loaded, no outs, down by just one, the conference player of the year up to bat and still, nothing.
While not as exciting as last years 3 game series in which Michigan won the championship, I still enjoyed watching. There were tons of opportunities to talk with my 9-yr-old about the different situations and for her to learn from watching.
For example: why you clear the basepath as a 2nd baseman trying to turn the double, why it's more dangerous to dive head first into a base, and how pitchers don't just stand on the mound and watch the action. It also reminded me that even elite athletes make mistakes and I have to keep the game in perspective when working with 10U players. :)
Read about the series at ESPN or search Google news for "Arizona Softball" for more stories.
Technorati Tags: softball, Sports, entertainment, college
posted by Stacie | 3:39 PM
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