Women’s College World Series Preview
Sports

Image: NCAA

Women’s College World Series Preview

One of the best tournaments of the year returns as the Women’s College World Series is back and the reigning champ is still at the top and the favorite to bring home another trophy. Oklahoma has been the team to beat in recent years and nothing has changed this time around as they have dominated up until this point and return this season as the favorites.

Oklahoma is the number one overall seed, followed the seeded teams that survived the Super Regionals bracket to make it to the World Series:

3) Florida State

4) Tennessee

5) Alabama

6) Oklahoma State

7) Washington

9) Stanford

15) Utah

Oklahoma is far and above the best team in the tournament and their offense is nearly impossible to stop. Their team batting average is currently .372 and the nearest team left is Utah with their .330 batting average.

The only way to stop Oklahoma will be to disrupt them and go with highly effective pitching changes. The Sooners did have a weakness with their defense at times this season and if opponents can cause the Sooners to boot a few errors, then all bets are off the table. Although there is no way to fully stop their offense.

Who can topple them?

Florida State is my best guess at taking down Oklahoma and potentially causing a coup. FSU won the championship in 2018 and they have another great team this year. They are loaded with talented base running and can steal bases effectively. They have great game planning and great coaching all the way around. FSU is one of the most experienced teams and generally, a well put together team in this tournament and I always trust a team that comes from a great background.

Potential Upset?

You cannot sleep on the Utah Utes. They enter the series as a 15-seed but Utah has been mashing their way through the postseason and it’s made them incredibly fun to watch. They won the Pac 12 tournament, then they pulled an upset when they took down Ole Miss by holding them to two runs during two games.

From there, they took down San Diego State and exploded on offense after falling behind after Game 1. They took Games 2 and 3 by scoring 17 runs over those finals two contests to send themselves to the World Series.

Players to Watch

Nijaree Canady is one of the most fun pitchers to watch as she pitches for Stanford and owns a 0.48 ERA. Ashley Rodgers from Tennessee is another who has a 0.75 ERA and dominates opposing lineups.

In terms of hitters, you can’t go wrong with Kiki Milloy from Tennessee who led the nation in home runs with 25 this season. Rachel Becker from Oklahoma State is one of my favorite hitters who has an on-base percentage over .570 and is constantly a menace to opposing pitchers.

Prediction

There is really only one team to trust over the last few years in the month of June and it is the Oklahoma Sooners who I believe will bully their way past the competition for another championship.