MAY 18 2010 UPDATE
CONFERENCE ALL-STAR TEAMS
Given the many formats used by the 30 conferences, some which used Adobe, many which had imbedded hyperlinks, etc, SPY could not post on this web site. Instead, the conference postings are now published on www.spysoftball.org. Not every conference has posted an all-conference team. Some of the formats crumbled in WordPress, and resemble a dog’s breakfast. But, the data is there, as refined as we could make it in two days of trying.
WEEKLY CONFERENCE HONORS
A few conferences are still bestowing weekly honors.
Atlantic 10 player of the week Meghan Carter, Massachusetts
Atlantic 10 co-pitcher of the week Emily Jeffery, Charlotte
Atlantic 10 co-pitcher of the week Sara Plourde, Massachusetts
Atlantic 10 rookie of the week Laura Bohning, St Louis
Big Ten player of the week Hope Howell, Illinois
Big Ten pitcher of the week Nikki Nemitz, Michigan
Big West player of the week Shea Williams, Cal Poly
Big West pitcher of the week Jessica Beristianos, Santa Barbara
CUSA hitter of the week Jazmine Valle, Marshall
CUSA pitcher of the week Toni Paisley, East Carolina
MVC player of the week Niki Stansell, Illinois State
MVC pitcher of the week Megan Warner, Illinois State
MWC player of the week Laura Briones, UNLV
MWC pitcher of the week Jessica O’Connor, UNLV
Pac 10 player of the week GiOnna DiSalvatore, UCLA
Pac 10 pitcher of the week Danielle Lawrie, Washington
Summit player of the week Melissa Chmielewski, North Dakota State
Summit pitcher of the week Deanna Friese, UMKC
PREMIER TEAMS PLAYING JAPAN
The Firecrackers, the So Cal Athletics and OC Babusters will be playing the
Japanese Women’s National Team in June in Huntington Beach.The A’s will play them June 16, the Batbusters will play them the 17th and the Firecrackers will play them the 18th.
SOUTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA NEEDS 2010 PLAYERS
Tami Loy <tami.loy@swosu.edu>
Middle Infielder and catcher. There is scholarship money available. DII program.
ARIZONA IS UPBEAT AFTER MEDICAL REPORTS
BY Patrick Finley, Arizona Star
At Monday’s team meeting, Arizona Wildcats coach Mike Candrea stood in front of his players and gave them an injury update on pitchers Kenzie Fowler and Sarah Akamine.
“We were all clapping,” senior shortstop K’Lee Arredondo said. “We were all really happy.”
Neither pitcher will throw until Thursday, but both are candidates to pitch this weekend when the UA hosts an NCAA regional.
The 10th-seeded Wildcats open against Cornell on Friday at 6 p.m. and will play either Hofstra or Oklahoma State on Saturday.
Fowler met with her vascular surgeon Monday, Candrea said. The doctor told the freshman that swelling in her right hand was unrelated to her 2007 surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome. Fowler spent 13 days in the hospital then, and doctors removed a rib to open blood flow to her shoulder and likely saved her life.
“Everything they did is looking good,” Candrea said. “There’s no blood clots, no nothing.”
He said Fowler’s injury is likely a pinched nerve in her neck that affects blood flow to her right hand.
Akamine, the No. 2 starter, had an MRI on Monday that revealed a sprained left knee – not a torn meniscus, as was feared.
When swelling in Akamine’s knee subsides, Candrea said, the team will consider fitting her with a brace. Her status depends on her pain tolerance, which Candrea said is high. After all, she beat Tennessee-Martin in last year’s regional five days after after receiving a cortisone shot in her pitching shoulder.
Candrea called both of Monday’s injury reports “the best news that we could have asked for.”
Neither pitcher practiced Monday, and both were unavailable for comment.
The coach joked he wouldn’t name a starter until a half-hour before Friday’s game.
“We’ll keep the question mark,” he said. “I think it’s good for the entire nation to count Arizona out.”
SPY NOTE: Email to SPY and other web sites universally hailed this story as good news for the Wildcats, but many writers still posted a caveat about Arizona’s chances – if Fowler can pitch at 70-80% effectiveness, UofA wins; if not, opinion seems to lean to Oklahoma State. SPY has seen all but Cornell, and is very appreciative of Olivia Galati’s potential.
OTHER NCAA NOTES
Email to SPY postings on other web sites continue express disappointment that more mid-majors were not included. As SPY noted yesterday, all but 5 of the 34 at-large bids went to teams from the major conferences.
There were the usual comments about distances some teams have to travel, like Cornell to Arizona, Oklahoma to Maryland, Oregon to Atlanta, Arizona State to Boston, North Carolina to Seattle, California to Ohio.
At least in SPY mail, only one team was singled out by a number of readers as not deserving of a bid – Nebraska – when more qualified teams – like Southern Illinois with Danielle Glosson – were left out. Saw this refrain frequently on other web sites. Some readers thought Texas had the easiest bracket to win; SPY has heard from the young ladies at Iona and they are determined to make their presence felt. To several readers who have scoffed at what they consider easy matchups, I have two words_ Bethune-Cookman.
The opinions on Nebraska focus universally on ace pitcher Robyn Mackin deciding to retire (injuries). However, there is speculation about other pitchers, not just Fowler and Akamine but also Teagan Gerhart who has been sidelined recently at Stanford. And, SPY has had the expected queries about the umpires – will they enforce the rule on illegal pitching as vigorously as they did at early tournaments, like Cathedral City and the Garman, and, if so, will they affect pitchers like Stephanie Brombacher of Florida and Jordan Taylor of Michigan, who were tagged frequently in the early going? Both are reliably reported to have shaped up their mechanics.
Perhaps the most vociferous comments, expressed on another web site, were not about the teams but about the ESPN announcers, particularly the 3-in-1 format used at the SEC.
Finally, to the readers credit, many readers have noted the selections hewed very closely to RPI scores/rankings.
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