Alabama has three pitchers that they use and a couple of them are pretty good. Their blowout wins this weekend are mostly because they got taken care of in the bracket. And they can play pretty solid defense. But when you're giving up a lot of runs, it can be for a lot of reasons.
OU's offense seems to only post big numbers when the other team's defense helps out. OUr lineup can be murder with an extra out in an inning. Although A&M gave us a lot of chances and mostly, we didn't take advantage. A big factor in the game today is that one of OUr best hitters had a horrible day. Katie Self left eight runners on base in her first three at bats, all with two outs. Then in her fourth grounded into a double play with first and second and no outs, wrecking a chance for a big inning. The first three times through the batting order, our six, seven, eight and nine hitters had one hit in 12 plate appearances.
Nicole Pendley has struggled since teams have a book on how to pitch to her. And the XII just didn't have great pitching to face at all.
One XII team failed to make the regional final. Texas.
One XII team got to the regional final, but didn't make the if game.
One XII team, Baylor, made the regional final and the if game, but got soundly beaten in game seven.
Only OU made it to the Supers. It's not a coincidence that a whole lot of home teams advanced. Only the 15th and 16th seeds didn't make it, and that was mostly because ND and James Madison didn't deserve to be seeded. It's a crime that Baylor had to go on the road.
Of the top 11 seeds, only LSU a five seed advanced with a loss. They along with Georgia, a 14 seed, advanced after losing their second game, then winning three straight. Arizona, a 12 seed, lost game 6 on Sunday, but won game 7 to advance to the Supers.
We're going to hear a lot of trumpeting about the SEC winning all these regionals, but only one, Kentucky, wasn't at home and Kentucky was in the South Bend regional where Notre Dame lost their first game to Ball State, a regional four seed in the four team bracket. Baylor would have won that regional easily. And Kansas might have. They ended up getting the finals, but lost game six to Mizzou, 7-6. They lost game 3 to Mizzou in a tight game after leading early.
Half of the teams in the Supers are SEC teams and all but three are playing at home.
North Carolina State and 9 seed Florida State are the only two teams from the ACC who made the Supers. NC State got a breeze of a region as the only Power Five conference team in their region. James Madison was the host and they didn't even make the finals. Fordham did, Binghamton was the other team. Maybe some AD from Raleigh was on the bracket committee.
Florida won game six in their region, 1-0 over Florida Atlantic in extra innings. The other teams in their region were Hofstra and Florida A&M, who is horrible.
The Sooners will have their work cut out for them in Tuscaloosa. Alabama might be peaking. The view depends on how good you think Washington is. The Tide run ruled them twice. I still believe that if the Sooner pull it off, they'd have a good bracket in OKC, but getting there will be a challenge, thanks to the bracketeers.