Of course I went back to that same Waffle House this morning. I had to. Was there any question there?
I decided I'd had enough of being in Oklahoma City for the Women's College World Series and not watching softball. So I went to this morning's session, which was really this afternoon's session. What I'm saying is, it was hot, and the sun was out all day. I am several very interesting, unnatural colors right now. Here's an obligatory picture from the front of the stadium for you, so you know where I was:
Florida State did to UCLA pretty much what we did, but less of it. They live another day in the loser's bracket.
The next game was Alabama/LSU. I gotta tell you, I was glad the seats I had were in front of the LSU fans, because I definitely would have moved if I'd have been in front of the bammer section. I didn't drive all this way to get stuck with a bunch of gumps, I get that for free at home.
This guy in the cowboy hat was, as far as I can tell, LSU's answer to Helmet Guy. I actually spoke with him as we were leaving the game, he's a retired principal and a cool dude. There were several LSU fans around me who were very nice and appreciative of someone else hating bama right along with them, even if they were wearing different colors. Also, a vendor came through the LSU section towards the end of the game selling corn dogs, and I thought I was going to bust a gut laughing at some of the looks he got. It was priceless.
LSU jumped on top of Bama, but let them back in the game a bit towards the end. Still, it ended correctly, and I am pleased to be able to present the following picture of People Who Are No Longer Appearing In This Tournament:
After the LSU/Alabama game, they cleared the stadium, and I grabbed a couple of concession stand "barbecue sandwiches" for lunchish. I wound up talking with a Bunker member up from Houston with his daughter (please post here and let me know who you are, I'm horrendous with names!) and Sue Nunnely, and went back into the stadium with them.
Again, I owe a debt to the fine Auburn folks from Oklahoma who offered me the opportunity to crash their extra seats, because this was my view of the game this evening:
Also, does anybody know who this guy is? I think he dates one of the players.
We started off well enough, getting a run in the top of the first, but then we let the Dawgs score one each in the second, third, and fourth. Mikayla was simply not herself, and a lot of her pitches were being left too far up in the zone. Rachel Walters (number 19 in your program, y'all) came in for her to start the third and settled in after giving up a run in the third and fourth to quiet the Georgia bats from there on out.
Going into the top of the 7th, we were down 3-1, but we had 9-1-2 coming up, which meant Kasey Cooper was going to have a say in how this ended. That's enough for me to have hope. Draper and Howard both got on, Draper with a single and Howard on an error, and Kasey scored Draper and got Howard to third. Emily scored Howard on a single, and we had Cooper on third and Emily on first with no outs. Carlee fouled out, which brought Jade to the plate.
Here's the play-by-play of what happened next: . Rhodes reached on a fielder's choice, grounded out to 1b unassisted, RBI (2-2 SBBFFF); E. Carosone out at second 2b unassisted; K. Cooper scored, unearned.
That's nothing like what happened, though. Jade grounded to the second baseman, who chased Emily around a bit, missed tagging her, and then, importantly, threw to second to get her. We think that Emily would have been called out for running out of the baseline anyway, and if Georgia's second baseman had thrown to first to get Jade, we might still be playing softball in extra innings. But she didn't, and Kasey was able to score on the play.
Jade ran through the bag at first, and coach Scott Woodard kind of locked elbows with her in what was perhaps a celebratory manner and swung her around towards first base as she came back. For whatever reason, the first base umpire thought Jade was abandoning her bag and heading towards the dugout (even though there was no reason for her to do that, as there were only 2 outs) and called her out at first due to coach interference. You might not have seen it on ESPN, but the home plate umpire conferred with the first base umpire, called Jade out, and then definitely pointed at home plate, which is his signal that the run scored. I hear the ESPN scoreboard bug took the run off the board and had it 3-3 for a while, but the scoreboard in the stadium never did.
We got the last 3 outs in the bottom of the 7th, and we commenced to celebrating:
All in all, I got to see Alabama lose and have to go home, and Auburn beat Georgia and advance in the winner's bracket. This was the best result I could have hoped for.
Oh, because I know you guys want this picture, here it is:
CALVES
I decided I'd had enough of being in Oklahoma City for the Women's College World Series and not watching softball. So I went to this morning's session, which was really this afternoon's session. What I'm saying is, it was hot, and the sun was out all day. I am several very interesting, unnatural colors right now. Here's an obligatory picture from the front of the stadium for you, so you know where I was:
Florida State did to UCLA pretty much what we did, but less of it. They live another day in the loser's bracket.
The next game was Alabama/LSU. I gotta tell you, I was glad the seats I had were in front of the LSU fans, because I definitely would have moved if I'd have been in front of the bammer section. I didn't drive all this way to get stuck with a bunch of gumps, I get that for free at home.
This guy in the cowboy hat was, as far as I can tell, LSU's answer to Helmet Guy. I actually spoke with him as we were leaving the game, he's a retired principal and a cool dude. There were several LSU fans around me who were very nice and appreciative of someone else hating bama right along with them, even if they were wearing different colors. Also, a vendor came through the LSU section towards the end of the game selling corn dogs, and I thought I was going to bust a gut laughing at some of the looks he got. It was priceless.
LSU jumped on top of Bama, but let them back in the game a bit towards the end. Still, it ended correctly, and I am pleased to be able to present the following picture of People Who Are No Longer Appearing In This Tournament:
After the LSU/Alabama game, they cleared the stadium, and I grabbed a couple of concession stand "barbecue sandwiches" for lunchish. I wound up talking with a Bunker member up from Houston with his daughter (please post here and let me know who you are, I'm horrendous with names!) and Sue Nunnely, and went back into the stadium with them.
Again, I owe a debt to the fine Auburn folks from Oklahoma who offered me the opportunity to crash their extra seats, because this was my view of the game this evening:
Also, does anybody know who this guy is? I think he dates one of the players.
We started off well enough, getting a run in the top of the first, but then we let the Dawgs score one each in the second, third, and fourth. Mikayla was simply not herself, and a lot of her pitches were being left too far up in the zone. Rachel Walters (number 19 in your program, y'all) came in for her to start the third and settled in after giving up a run in the third and fourth to quiet the Georgia bats from there on out.
Going into the top of the 7th, we were down 3-1, but we had 9-1-2 coming up, which meant Kasey Cooper was going to have a say in how this ended. That's enough for me to have hope. Draper and Howard both got on, Draper with a single and Howard on an error, and Kasey scored Draper and got Howard to third. Emily scored Howard on a single, and we had Cooper on third and Emily on first with no outs. Carlee fouled out, which brought Jade to the plate.
Here's the play-by-play of what happened next: . Rhodes reached on a fielder's choice, grounded out to 1b unassisted, RBI (2-2 SBBFFF); E. Carosone out at second 2b unassisted; K. Cooper scored, unearned.
That's nothing like what happened, though. Jade grounded to the second baseman, who chased Emily around a bit, missed tagging her, and then, importantly, threw to second to get her. We think that Emily would have been called out for running out of the baseline anyway, and if Georgia's second baseman had thrown to first to get Jade, we might still be playing softball in extra innings. But she didn't, and Kasey was able to score on the play.
Jade ran through the bag at first, and coach Scott Woodard kind of locked elbows with her in what was perhaps a celebratory manner and swung her around towards first base as she came back. For whatever reason, the first base umpire thought Jade was abandoning her bag and heading towards the dugout (even though there was no reason for her to do that, as there were only 2 outs) and called her out at first due to coach interference. You might not have seen it on ESPN, but the home plate umpire conferred with the first base umpire, called Jade out, and then definitely pointed at home plate, which is his signal that the run scored. I hear the ESPN scoreboard bug took the run off the board and had it 3-3 for a while, but the scoreboard in the stadium never did.
We got the last 3 outs in the bottom of the 7th, and we commenced to celebrating:
All in all, I got to see Alabama lose and have to go home, and Auburn beat Georgia and advance in the winner's bracket. This was the best result I could have hoped for.
Oh, because I know you guys want this picture, here it is:
CALVES
