This past weekend, Cal defeated Kentucky in three games to advance to the 2011 NCAA Women's Softball College World Series. The WCWS field was set through the weekend's super regional contests and features eight teams: Alabama, Arizona State, Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor, and Cal. The World Series is a double elimination bracket starting Thursday June 2.
The first round will feature the following matchups on June 2:
Game 1: #2 Alabama vs. #7 California
Game 2: #11 Baylor vs. Oklahoma State
Game 3: #1 Arizona State vs. #9 Oklahoma
Game 4: #4 Florida vs. #5 Missouri
You can view the entire bracket at NCAA.com. You just click on the box with the eight teams and an expanded bracket will appear. Here is a brief explanation of the bracket as well (you might be safer just viewing the link):
The second round will feature Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2 (in game 5) and Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4 (in game 6). Those games will take place on June 3. On June 4, Loser Game 1 will take on Loser Game 2 (in Game 7), and Loser Game 3 will take on Loser Game 4 (in game 8).
The bracket gets a little funky at this point as we have losers starting to play winners now that teams will officially be eliminated. The loser of game 5 will take on the winner of game 7 (in game 9) for the right to face the winner of game 5 (in game 11). The loser of game 6 will take on the winner of game 8 (in game 10) for the right to face the winner of game 6 (in game 12). Get all that?
Games 11 and 12 are semifinal contests, but could turn into two-game affairs. Each semifinal will have one team with no losses and one team with one loss. If the one-loss team wins there will be one more game. If the no-loss team wins, they advance to the Championship Series.
Could it be any more simple?