USF softball to play top-ranked UCLA
By Times Staff
Published May 22, 2006
GAINESVILLE - The USF softball team must have saved all its bats for Sunday's Gainesville Region championship, winning 7-4 against Florida Atlantic.
The Bulls had scored eight in five games before the region finale in front of 337 at Florida Softball Stadium.
USF (50-23) faces top-ranked and Pacific 10 champion UCLA in an NCAA Tournament round of 16 matchup next weekend. The best-of-three series at Easton Stadium in Los Angeles begins 6 p.m. Saturday. The teams play a two-game set Sunday.
USF scored twice in the top of the first after Owls catcher Charlotte Baird dropped a third strike with two outs, then didn't throw to first. USF had three unearned runs.
The Owls (35-25) had plenty of chances to score but didn't until the seventh inning, when they got all their runs.
"(USF) happened to get key hits when they had people on base, and we didn't come up with key hits when we had people on base," FAU coach Joan Joyce said. "That's really the way the game went."
FAU's best chance came in the third, when they had runners on second and third with no outs. USF coach Ken Eriksen brought in left-hander Kasey Cash to face two left-handers, and she struck out both before giving way to Cristi Ecks, who ended the threat and finished the game.
"The job that Kasey Cash did for us today, with runners in scoring position when she came in and faced the two left-handers, really put the fire out of FAU, I thought, at that point," Eriksen said.
Joyce said that was a huge turning point.
"I think the thing that hurt us was a couple mental mistakes early in the game that we gave up some runs," Joyce said. "It was hard, really, to come back from that, although (my players) kept on plugging. They had opportunity after opportunity and didn't capitalize."
-IAN FISHER, Times correspondent
FSU 2, GEORGIA 0: Melissa May pitched a three-hit shutout and Yuruby Alicart hit a third-inning homer to carry the Seminoles over the host Bulldogs, sending FSU to the round of 16.
"I'm just proud of our kids and proud of their heart in bouncing back after that early loss," FSU coach JoAnne Graf said.
FSU plays Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz. Dates and times are scheduled to be announced today. The Seminoles beat the Sun Devils 1-0 in nine innings on March 16 in California.
FSU (44-28) got its other run in the seventh inning when Carey Galuppi scored from first on a hit and two errors.
Georgia (54-15) forced a second game with a 3-1 victory earlier Sunday behind Kasi Carroll (30-7), the pitcher of record in both games.
In the first game, FSU broke on top in the first on a sacrifice fly by Veronica Wootson.
Georgia took the lead with a two-run sixth, with Victoria Sanders scoring the tying run on Chelsea Cantillo's infield single before Megan McAllister delivered a sacrifice fly. Kelly Middleton's bases-loaded single in the seventh drove in the final run for the Bulldogs.
Baseball
The University of Tampa is headed to the Division II College World Series for the second time under coach Joe Urso, completing its charge through the South Region by dismantling third-seeded Catawba 15-5 in the championship game.
The victory was Tampa's school-record 50th. The Spartans head to Montgomery, Ala., for the College World Series, where they will meet South Atlantic champion Francis Marion University on Saturday.
The top-seeded Spartans peppered Indians pitching for 21 hits, none more significant than rightfielder Troy Ferguson's two-out, two-strike grand slam in the fourth inning that gave UT a two-run lead and the momentum it needed to overcome a confident Catawba team.
"I choked up and figured I'd get a curveball, but the pitcher put it right where I like it and I just made good contact," said Ferguson, one of seven Spartans to make the all-tournament team.
The Indians had visions of an upset after David Thomas' bases-clearing double off starter Johnny Williams contributed to a four-run lead in the second inning.
Those dreams, however, were short-lived as UT batted around in the fourth, collecting seven runs on six hits, three of them home runs.
Craig Corrado led off the inning with a shot to deep left. Tournament MVP Lee Cruz added a shot two batters later. But it was Ferguson's blast, which hit high off the leftfield netting, that changed the game's complexion.
Urso didn't wait long to plug in closer Aaron Cook, who pitched five scoreless innings to earn the win.
-DAVID NORRIE, Times correspondent
FootballCountryside quarterback L.D. Crow committed to Stanford. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound senior finished last season 99-of-154 for 1,360 yards, 11 touchdowns and two interceptions. He is listed by flavar-sity.com as the 50th-best prospect in the state and also had offers from Rutgers and Middle Tennessee.
-BOB PUTNAM, Times staff writer
TIDE LINEBACKER ARRESTED: Alabama starting linebacker Juwan Simpson was arrested Saturday in Birmingham, Ala., by Jefferson County sheriff's deputies on charges of receiving stolen property, possession of marijuana and carrying a pistol without a license. Simpson, 21, a senior, was released on $7,000 bond.
Other sports
LACROSSE: The College of New Jersey captured its second straight Division III title with a 10-4 win over top-seeded Gettysburg in Hoboken, N.J. The title was the school's 13th overall and the 11th at the school for coach Sharon Pfluger.
WOMEN'S TENNIS: Semifinal matches of the Division I tournament in Stanford, Calif., were delayed by weather. The early match between Southern California and Miami began with the Trojans winning the doubles point, and the singles matches each were in the early stages of the second set when play was halted. The Stanford-Florida matchup hadn't started.