Alabama Softball World Series Open Thread: Game 3 vs. Oregon

(2) Alabama

(51-11, 19-5 SEC)

Sunday, June 1 - 2:30-ish pm CT - ESPN

Softball enthusiasts have been looking forward to this game between top seed Oregon and second seed Alabama. However, most fans did not expect these two to meet up until the Championship series starting on Monday. With an Alabama win, the Ducks go home and the Tide moves on to to the finals. If UO wins the 2:30 game, the two teams play again at 8:30pm CT with the winner moving on.

[Side note: Alabama is the only team to go undefeated (7-0) throughout the post-season tournament.]

BAMA 2 KENTUCKY 0

On Friday night, Jaclyn Jackie J-Train Traina was again on top of her game throwing a no-hitter into the sixth inning. In the seventh, the Wildcats started swinging early in the count filling the bases on 6 pitches. The fourth UK batter of the inning struck out followed by a slick ground-out double play to end the game. Leona Lafaele supplied all the scoring with a 2-run homer to left center in the second inning.

OREGON

The Ducks have had a pretty strong season as well as post-season. Ranked #1 since mid-April, UO blew through their Regional and Super Regional by the average score of 8 to 1, scoring at least 6 runs in all 5 games. In the first round of the WCWS, they one-hit FSU 3-0 but then ran into their new nemesis in Florida. The two teams met in Orlando in February with the then #1 Gators winning 2-1 in eight innings on a wild pitch. They also lost to them in 2013 1-0 on an unearned run. On Friday, Oregon's hopes for revenge were dashed by Hannah Rogers' superb pitching holding the Ducks to 3 hits for a 4-0 final. Saturday, Oregon's bats reawakened with 7 hits to eliminate Oklahoma 4-2.

The Ducks have two fine pitchers but Cheridan Hawkins (35-5, 1.62 ERA) is the ace. Leadoff hitter Courtney Ceo leads the nation in batting with a .490 batting average. As a team, Oregon is hitting .345, good for third in the nation.

Bama line-up: