Why Not?

Yes, this is how I choose to spend my Friday night: live-blogging softball. Let's see how this goes.

-- I may not be rocking and rolling in Athens like Patrick and Rick, but I guess this is the next best thing. Watching Georgia athletics and having a Terrapin or two should make it feel a little like Athens tonight.

-- You'd think Georgia would have it pretty easy after handling the best player in the country last night, but it looks like Tennessee's pitcher is going to be at least as tough tonight. She shut out Arizona, which scores like 8 runs a game, yesterday and shut Georgia down in the SEC tournament.

-- McCloud looked like Georgia's third-best pitcher last night, but what do I know? She's starting again.

-- Savannahian Watch: Dotson pops out on the first pitch, and a ridiculously easy first inning for Georgia. Again, what do I know?

-- It makes me feel really old when the announcers talk about college athletes who "grew up watching" sporting events that happened in 2005.

-- Evidence that these softball teams must be really quotable: One analyst's favorite quote of the week was "It's anyone's game."

-- Georgia puts two on with one out and gets nothing. The way Renfroe has been pitching for Tennessee, that really hurts.

-- And John Wooden just died, so I'm breaking news in here, too, tonight. Does this make Mark Fox the world's greatest living basketball coach now? I'm not sure if that sentence was in poor taste or not.

-- Actually, play-by-play announcer, it probably is a coincidence that the school at which Wooden coached has more national championships in all sports than any other school. His titles helped, I'm sure, but unless he invented water polo and volleyball, it is a total coincidence.

-- Quick hook for McCloud: a walk and two wild pitches to start the second.

-- Not good. Tennessee up 1-0 on another wild pitch/passed ball, this one from Arevalo. Then an infield single and a ball off the pitcher's glove. Then a hit batter. Oh boy.

-- Another run on another wild pitch, and they get out of it. Tennessee up 2-0.

-- That shot of the body-painted Georgia students gave me a thought: Do we have any evidence that JJH4 isn't actually in Oklahoma City right now?

-- Georgia catches a break of its own with a single on a dribbler....Dramatic strikeout call there, ump....Second and third, top of the order up, runner thrown out trying to score on a wild pitch...and, another rough half-inning.

-- Savannahian/Control-Problem Watch: Dotson hit by a pitch to lead off the third...A bunt single, and another pitching change. Ugly start, to say the least...Owen, the third pitcher, hits somebody herself. This is unbelievable.

-- Next pitch grand slam. Now that was unbelievable.

-- So it's 6-0 now with Georgia coming up in the third, and I'm not sure they've got a fourth pitcher they can go to if need be. And the announcers are right: getting thrown out at home with Schlopy up was brutal.

-- Nothing is going Georgia's way right now. Goler smokes one right to the center fielder. It's not crazy to start thinking about the run rule at this point. Not being cynical. That's just how this sport works.

-- Savannahian/Run-Rule Watch: Dotson singles and goes to second on an error after a lead-off triple. 7-0. She's stranded at third.

-- Maybe this is nitpicking, but play-by-play announcer, every SEC school that plays softball can take recruits to a big stadium on fall Saturdays and then show them the softball facilities. Then again, maybe high school girls are just really into checkerboard end zones.

-- Georgia loads them and scores on an infield single, but that's it. And yeah, that might be it for Georgia, too. That's seven stranded runners that come immediately to mind.

-- I didn't know John Wooden had such a profound effect on the sport of softball. Let me be clear: I'm not trying to disrespect someone on the night he died, but these people don't have to try so hard to make an event like that central to their Friday-night softball telecast.

-- And it's still 7-1 going into the bottom of the fifth. It's hard to imagine Georgia is going to get many more chances like the ones they've had.

-- A rare strikeout for Goler on a questionable call, but Wiggins eventually comes around on an error. It seems like everything Georgia does is with two outs, and another strikeout ends the fifth. 7-2.

-- I can't wait for the complaints tomorrow about how long this post is.

-- Savannahian Watch, Pt. 4: Dotson slaps her way on with one out, but no damage done. You've got to give Owens credit. She's done a hell of a job outside of one pitch. That was one massive pitch, but still.

-- Not much to say about the sixth. Georgia gets one on, but with two outs and it's still 7-2. Two-three-four due up in the seventh, at least, if Owens holds here.

-- Nice double play to get out of the seventh with two on. It's easy to play the what-if game in any situation, but it's hard to believe this thing is one pitch away from being 3-2.

-- At least they didn't wait for two outs to get a couple runners on, and a three-run homer to make it 7-5.

-- Hesson follows with a one-out single, but Renfroe gets the next two. Just wasted too many chances the first few innings, even with that disastrous wild-pitch fest earlier.

-- The loser's bracket scenario is almost impossible. Win tomorrow and twice on Sunday to make the final. I've got no idea who's playing who, because the NCAA's bracket and the other stuff I'm reading don't match up.

-- I thought about typing some more filler to get it over with and make this post take up the whole page. But I'll just end it here. Just know that this was as fun for me to write as it was painful for you to read Saturday afternoon. 10-6.