The 2011 NCAA women's softball super regionals are underway and the Stanford Cardinal will not be advancing to the Women's College World Series this year. The Cardinal were defeated by the Alabama Crimson Tide in three games Thursday and Friday. Alabama is the first team to advance to the eight team WCWS pool. The Tide will likely remain the two seed as number one Arizona State is close to finishing off Texas A&M and moving into the WCWS themselves.
The Cardinal actually seemed ready to spring what would have been a fairly huge upset. Stanford came in as the No. 15 seed and was facing a No. 2 seed in Alabama that has been on a roll in 2011. The Cardinal took the first game of this best-of-three series with a 5-2 victory on Thursday. Teagan Gerhart threw a complete game striking out eight and allowing five runs in the first three innings to hold up.
Alabama quickly reasserted themselves with a 10-0 shellacking of the Cardinal in game two Friday at 1:30pm pacific. Teagan Gerhart started this game as well and was chased after only three innings of work. The Cardinal offense struggled against Kelsi Dunne who gave up two hits and no walks in the five-inning affair.
The two squads met in the deciding third game as part of a double-header, taking the field at 4:00pm pacific. It was a tense final game as both pitchers were tossing up zeroes through five innings. However, Alabama finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth with a huge two-out triple by Cassie Reilly-Boccia. Stanford had a shot at a play at the plate but couldn't get the out. The Cardinal went down 1-2-3 in the seventh inning to end the game and their season.