June 2, 2010

Complete Game Notes

The Missouri Tiger softball team, currently ranked No. 8 (USA Today/NFCA)/14 (ESPN.com/USA Softball) in the latest polls and seeded No. 9 overall in the NCAA Tournament have advanced to the Women's College World Series for the second consecutive season.  The Tigers beat Oregon twice in a best-of-three series at the first-ever NCAA Super Regional held in Columbia, Mo., this past weekend.  Missouri outlasted the Ducks by a 1-0 score in game one before beating UO 7-2 in game two, punching their ticket to the WCWS for the fifth time in school history.

Mizzou will open play against the No. 16 seed Hawaii Rainbow Wahine, who move on to Oklahoma City, Okla., following their upset of top seeded Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala. last weekend.  Hawaii went down 1-0 in the series following an 8-0 loss, but bounced back with an 8-7 win in game two before pulling off a dramatic 5-4 victory in the decisive third game.  Down 4-3 with two outs in the last inning, Hawaii's Jenna Rodriguez belted a two-run bomb on the first pitch she saw, advancing Hawaii to the WCWS and knocking out the tournament's top seed.

Also on the Missouri/Hawaii side of the bracket are fourth seeded Florida and No. 5 seed UCLA.  On the other side of the bracket are No. 3 Washington, No. 6 Georgia, No. 10 Arizona and No. 15 Tennessee.

Missouri and Hawaii will be the first two teams to open action at the 2010 Women's College World Series, as they are scheduled to play at Noon CT on Thursday, June 3.

SCOUTING HAWAII
After two tough weeks on the road that saw a perfect 3-0 weekend at the NCAA Stanford Regional and an upset of the tournament's top-seeded Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa, the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine have clinched a berth to the Women's College World Series for the first time in the history of the program.  Hawaii has been ranked in the bottom half of the top 25 for much of the season, but they picked up the No. 16 overall seed in this year's NCAA Tournament.  The Rainbow Wahine are 49-14 on the season with a No. 19 ranking in the USA Today/NFCA poll and a No. 23 ranking in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll.  Hawaii finished 19-1 in WAC play, winning both the regular season and tournament championships.  The Rainbow Wahine are led by head coach Bob Coolen, now in his 19th season with Hawaii.  He's amassed a 714-425-1 record at UH and a 787-518-1 record in his 24-year career.

Hawaii's made their mark this season as the best power hitting team in the history of the sport, as they've belted an NCAA record 153 home runs during the 2010 campaign.  UH broke the old mark of 134 set by Arizona in 2009.  Hawaii hits .326 as a team, with Melissa Gonzalez and Kelly Majam both ranking in with averages over .400.  Eight players on the team have hit more than 10 home runs this season, while Gonzalez's 25 and Majam's 30 setting the pace.  Both Gonzalez and Majam have collected 60 RBI on the season, while three others have over 50.  The 'Bows don't do much running, as they've only swiped 17 bases in 23 attempts this year, but they do get on base at a .410 clip and have put up a .653 team slugging percentage this season.

In the circle, Stephanie Ricketts and Kaia Parnaby have combined to start all 63 games this year.  Ricketts, the sister of Oklahoma's Keilani Ricketts, leads the team with a 2.54 ERA and a record of 28-8.  She's registered 153 strikeouts and 85 walks in 226.0 innings.  Parnaby stands at 19-6 on the season with a 3.15 ERA.  She leads the team with 185 strikeouts and has walked just 45 batters.  

MIZZOU VS. HAWAII
The Tigers and the Rainbow Wahine have faced off eight times previously, with each team winning four of the games.  They last met in 2002 at the Aztec Invitational where Hawaii took both meetings, winning by scores of 3-1 and 5-1.  Prior to that, Mizzou and Hawaii met six separate times, all coming during the 1994 season.  Missouri took victories in four of the games, winning the 1-0 in the opener, 5-2, and by scores of 3-1 and 2-1 in the NCAA Regional.  Hawaii beat MU by scores of 4-3 and 2-1 that season.

FOLLOW THE GAMES
Every game at the 2010 Women's College World Series will be featured on either ESPN or ESPN2, along with being streamed online at ESPN3.com (formerly ESPN360.com).  Each Missouri game will also be broadcast on the radio through KTGR at 1580 AM and 100.5 FM.  Live stats and scoring for every game will be available at NCAA.com, which will also provide updated brackets, tournament statistics and notes and other information as it becomes available