[d4cohn]

NiJaree is amazing. She sparked this rally by striking out the side in the third, and her infectious energy carried over to her team. A blunder by the Cal State Fullerton head coach turning to a redshirt freshman instead of one of her two aces (honestly, I wouldn't have pulled the starter after the Kyra Chan fielder's choice) was the deciding factor. The reliever only records one out, commits an error, and gives up Aly Kaneshiro's game winning double. The second reliever (who is the second ace for Fullerton) did a solid job, but the damage had already been done.


Looking ahead to the LSU Tigers, Stanford will host Super Regionals Friday-Sunday (Friday is 7:00pm PT, and Saturday scheduled for 6:00pm PT). LSU, at least with their pitching staff, has a very similar situation to Stanford: ace pitcher who is markedly their number one arm, and then #2 and #3's with noticably higher ERAs (Stanford fans will recognize #3 arm Kelley Lynch, who has confused Stanford when she was pitching for the Washington Huskies).

Offensively, this also a pretty comparable team: sub .300 BA, draw a lot of walks for a high OBP, and not the best power team in the country (.428 team slugging percentage).

On account of a slightly better power hitting team, and a better ace than theirs (and home field), I think Stanford wins this series and goes to OKC. But it likely be (very) close, and management of the respective rotations could very well decide things, like I believe it did today.

[d4cohn]

NiJaree is amazing. She sparked this rally by striking out the side in the third, and her infectious energy carried over to her team. A blunder by the Cal State Fullerton head coach turning to a redshirt freshman instead of one of her two aces (honestly, I wouldn't have pulled the starter after the Kyra Chan fielder's choice) was the deciding factor. The reliever only records one out, commits an error, and gives up Aly Kaneshiro's game winning double. The second reliever (who is the second ace for Fullerton) did a solid job, but the damage had already been done.


Looking ahead to the LSU Tigers, Stanford will host Super Regionals Friday-Sunday (Friday is 7:00pm PT, and Saturday scheduled for 6:00pm PT). LSU, at least with their pitching staff, has a very similar situation to Stanford: ace pitcher who is markedly their number one arm, and then #2 and #3's with noticably higher ERAs (Stanford fans will recognize #3 arm Kelley Lynch, who has confused Stanford when she was pitching for the Washington Huskies).

Offensively, this also a pretty comparable team: sub .300 BA, draw a lot of walks for a high OBP, and not the best power team in the country (.428 team slugging percentage).

On account of a slightly better power hitting team, and a better ace than theirs (and home field), I think Stanford wins this series and goes to OKC. But it likely be (very) close, and management of the respective rotations could very well decide things, like I believe it did today.