OU Big 12 Champs!

Congrats to the Oklahoma Sooners softball teamwho beat Missouri on Sunday afternoon to capture their fourth Big 12 championship! Freshman pitcher Keilani Ricketts earned Most Outstanding Player honors following her third consecutive impressive performance in the title game. Ricketts was joined on the all tournament team by her teammates Amber Flores, Jessica Shults, and Lindsey Vandever. Nice job ladies!!!

Coach Forces to Drink out of cleat.

School officials in California have confirmed that eight members of the South Tahoe High softball team were forced by their coach to drink soda out of a cleat after striking out in a May 1 game. James Tarwater, superintendent of Lake Tahoe Unified School District, deemed the incident a “young coach’s mistake.”

“It was meant as a joke and obviously it went too far. People learn from mistakes. She does a good job pulling the team together, morale-wise and support-wise,” Tarwater said.

Of course, there’s at least one parent that is pissed off.

“I was not happy about this. She should have thought about this and acted with better judgment. This is a safety issue. Each year there is a horrible story of someone killed because of hazing.”

Let’s not get crazy here, no one is going to die from drinking soda out of shoe. Puke? Perhaps. But to the complaining parent’s credit, they’re not calling for the coach’s head and have reportedly accepted their apology.

“I don’t want her to be fired. That was never my intention,” the parent said. “She deserves a second chance. We’ve all made mistakes. We all deserve second chances; that’s the American way.”

Ah, yes, second chances. Reminds me of the time Charles Barkley forced teammate Armen Gilliam to drink tequila out of Manute Bol’s cup. Coach Jimmy Lynam still allowed Sir Charles to play the next night.

Coach makes players who strike out drink soda out of softball shoe [Tahoe Daily Tribune]

TEAMS SEEKING PLAYERS : Tarlaton University

NCAA Division II university; looking for another pitcher for 2010-2011 season; great scholarship, academic and softball opportunity contact email : coachmata1@yahoo.com

Province first BIG EAST Championship berth

The Providence College softball team finished seventh in the BIG EAST Conference standings and earned a spot in the eight-team Conference Championship. As the seventh seed, Providence (22-27, 10-12 BIG EAST) will play second seed Notre Dame (44-9, 18-3 BIG EAST) on Thursday, May 13 at 4:00 p.m. at Ulmer Stadium in Louisville, Ky. Notre Dame shared the regular season title with DePaul, but the Blue Demons took the No. 1 seed because they won the season series against the Fighting Irish.

In all, the Friars have reached the BIG EAST Championship nine times (1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2006, 2008, 2010), including three times in the last five seasons under head coach Kerri Jacklets. Providence captured its only BIG EAST Championship crown in 1994.

Providence is 0-2 all-time against Notre Dame in the BIG EAST Championship. The last time the two teams met in the league tournament was in 2006 when the Fighting Irish earned a 4-1 victory in the quarterfinals in Notre Dame, Ind. The two teams did not face each other this season, but they did play in the 2009 campaign as the Fighting Irish swept doubleheader in Providence.

Mizzou softball roars on without ace pitcher

COLUMBIA | Rhea Taylor and her Missouri softball teammates had just warmed up on Marita Hynes Field in Norman, Okla., and were settling onto the visitors’ dugout bench when Tigers coach Ehren Earleywine began what was far from a pep talk.

“Look, girls,” Taylor remembers Earleywine saying. “Chelsea’s hurt. Expect the worst. You hope for the best, but she’ll probably be out.”

For the season? Missouri’s All-American pitcher, Chelsea Thomas? She has a stress fracture in her pitching arm?

And then Earleywine delivered the challenge. The Tigers could pout. Or they could keep on moving on.

After a 5-0 victory over Nebraska in the final Big 12 Conference game Sunday, the Tigers — who open Big 12 tournament play against Oklahoma State at 2 p.m. Saturday in Oklahoma City — have moved on to a 44-10 record and No. 9 ranking in the USA Today/NFCA Division I poll.

And they’ve done it in spite of — and perhaps just a bit because of — the fact Thomas has not pitched since March 21, six days before the pivotal dugout sermon when Earleywine laid out the harsh reality for a team looking to return to the College World Series for a second straight season.

“We all kind of took that and ran with it,” Taylor said. “We beat Oklahoma 11-5 that next game.”

After falling behind 5-0.

Junior catcher Catherine Lee began the comeback with a two-out, three-run home run to dead center in the third inning. Sophomore first baseman Ashley Fleming capped an eight-run sixth with a three-run homer.

Senior Jana Hainey, freshman Lindsey Muller and sophomore Kristin Nottleman combined to throw seven innings of five-hit ball.

Thomas went to the sidelines with a 12-1 record, a 1.72 ERA and 123 strikeouts in 77 1/3 innings. And since then?

“We’re a team, and we’ve really come together,” said Lee, adding the Tigers hope to be a host during NCAA Tournament play, inclusion in that tournament being a foregone conclusion as the highest ranked of five Big 12 teams in the USA Today/NFCA top 25.

Taylor, a junior center fielder, emerged from a two-game sweep of Baylor in MU’s final home series of the regular season on May 1-2 with a Big 12-best .460 batting average.

Fleming was chosen USA Softball Player of the Week after going 11 for 13 in five games, hitting three doubles and two home runs, scoring seven runs and driving in eight.

Nottleman has an 18-6 record, Hainey a 9-2 mark and Muller a 5-1 record.

On a bus ride home from a recent series at Iowa State, Earleywine asked Thomas how her arm was feeling.

“She said, ‘You know, in the last two or three days this thing is really starting to feel better,’ ” Earleywine recounted. “ ‘I’ve got full range of motion. And the pain is really minimal.’ ”

Earleywine reiterated that the pain would have to be completely gone before he would allow Thomas to cut loose and really test the healing of the stress fracture.

“Until the pain is completely gone,” he explained, “there’s still a stress fracture.”

Even if a bone scan or MRI shows the fracture is healed, Earleywine might not use Thomas in the Big 12 tournament. Returning to pitch now would cost Thomas a complete season of eligibility, eliminating the possibility of a medical redshirt ruling.

“I’d say the chance is slim,” Earleywine said of a possible return this season, “but I think the chance is there.”

Taylor contends the outlook for the team has not changed since that afternoon in the dugout at Oklahoma.

“We can’t focus on hoping that Chelsea comes back this year,” Taylor said. “We have to focus on the now.

“We have Jana, Kristin, Lindsey. We have to focus on that.

“It’s not all about just thinking about just one person coming back. It’s a team sport.”

To reach Mike DeArmond, call 816-234-4353 or send e-mail to mdearmond@kcstar.com



Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/05/09/1935006/mizzou-softball-roars-on-without.html#ixzz0nYO3yFAs

Alma hoping for at-large softball tournament bid

Eventually Tara Leddy was going to break.

The junior ace for the Alma College softball team has been a rock all season and particularly brilliant over the past four weeks as she has not allowed a single earned run in her last five starts.

But even the best pitchers cannot be perfect at all times and Leddy's one errant pitch cost her three runs and proved to be the difference Sunday morning at Scots Park.

Needing a win over Adrian College to stay alive in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association softball tournament, host Alma College instead could not find any offense to support Leddy and watched as one swing of the bat by Jenna Kloster in the fourth inning turned the tides.

The three-run home run from Kloster was all the scoring the Bulldogs needed in the 3-0 decision, sending top seed Alma College home prematurely and hoping for an at-large bid during today's Division III NCAA Tournament selection show that will take place at noon.

"I think we are still in, but it's all up to how the top seeds in the other conference tournaments do," said Alma College head coach Denny Griffin.

"If we had won this one against Adrian, that would have been the clincher but unfortunately they were a little better than us today. We have a good resume, but you just never know until your name is called."

It was a long wait to get the tournament completed as inclement weather canceled the proceedings on Friday and Saturday.

After going 1-1 on Thursday, the Scots (30-9) needed to defeat Adrian (29-10) and then Trine University twice in order to win the MIAA Tournament title.

The rematch against Trine never transpired.

"I saw a lot of life out of our girls this morning and I don't think the early start played any role," Griffin said. "We came here expecting to play three games and it just didn't work out the way we planned."

As soon as the contest started it had the makings of a pitcher's duel, one in which one bad pitch might be the difference.

That, unfortunately for Alma College, was exactly what happened.

Kelly Eberhardt (20-7) entered the circle Sunday as Adrian College's single-season strikeout leader, a mark she broke in the final regular season doubleheader of the season.

Her abilities in the circle were evident from the get-go as she struck out two in the first to work around a Kelsey Rightenburg single.

Eberhardt then struck out the side in the second and one more in the third with the Scots going down in order both times.

"I tip my hat to Kelly, she pitched a great game," Griffin said. "Our kids said the ball was moving and she mixed her pitches. Tara pitched very well for us too, it was just a couple pitches in that fourth inning she'd like to have back."

Leddy (13-5) matched her counterpart through the first three, striking out four hitters and giving up just one hit.

But then the fourth inning happened, a frame in which Leddy ran into the kind of trouble she had been able to avoid the last three-plus weeks.

A leadoff walk and a one-out single set the table for Kloster, who smacked the ball just over the left field fence to give the Bulldogs a 3-0 advantage.

It ended Leddy's streak of no earned runs at 36 1/3 innings.

"She's been unbelievable for us during these past few weeks and she knows she made a couple of bad pitches that they hit hard," Griffin said of Leddy. "It's tough because we didn't have a lot of highlights offensively and when you can't support your pitcher you aren't going to win games."

After going down in order in the fifth, Alma College appeared it might have a little offensive life left in the top of the sixth.

A leadoff single by nine-hole hitter Dana Fend started things off, while pinch runner Chelsea Jensen moved to second on a groundout.

But with one out, the hardest hit ball by Alma College all day off the bat of Rightenburg was snagged on a line by Bulldogs first baseman Meghan Stevens for the second out.

"Rightenburg laced that ball and they made a tremendous play on it, but who knows what would have happened had we had a couple of runners on base," said Griffin.

Another groundout ended the frame, while the Scots went down in order in the seventh to end it.

Leddy surrendered the three earned runs on four hits with seven strikeouts and two walks over seven innings.

Eberhardt threw seven shutout innings of three-hit ball, striking out nine and walking none.

Rightenburg led Alma College with a single and a stolen base, while Sarah Johnson and Fend had the other two hits.

"Regardless of what happens, we've had a great season and were the conference champions," Griffin said. "Hopefully we get in and have the chance to play some more softball next week."

Trine went on to win the MIAA Tournament title as it topped Adrian College 1-0 in the final.