Wildcats 5-0 Lady Volunteers

This is a bit late, but the Arizona Wildcats climbed a pretty big mountain to come back and beat Tennessee in the Softball College World Series, in no small part due to the resurgence at the plate of their cute catcher, Callista Balko, the whole reason I was rooting for them. I'm not usually into blondes, but she's lanky and pulls off that hot pink glitter headband and a blue catcher's mask combo better than anyone. Seriously man, catchers are fine... Erin Dyer at Northwestern, Callista Balko at Arizona, and it goes both ways... I'm sure I hear a few contented sighs around me when the Piranha with the sideburns who sits behind the plate for the Twins hits the on-deck circle.

Monica Abbott looked unhittable in game one, to the point none of the Wildcats could get a ball out of the infield. Tennessee scored early, and Abbot's dominance made Tennessee look like a dead lock to win their first championship, with all the Volunteer Glitterati in attendance. But all the fawning over Abbott obscured the performance of Taryne Mowatt on the mound for Arizona in the final. Abbott pitched another seven shut-out innings in game two, but Mowatt wouldn't let anybody cross the plate for Tennessee, so they forced three more innings out of Abbott and the Lady Vols, finally cracking Abbott in the 10th. With one runner on base, Callista Balko, the catcher with the blonde curls, who was hitless for the tournament, rediscovered what everybody seemed to have forgotten, how to manufacture runs, and laid down about the first successful bunt of the whole tournament. She then then hustled to take advantage of a fielding error and beat the throw to first, saving an out which Arizona used to get the lead runner home for the win.

Game three was a reversal, as the Lady Vols still couldn't score on Mowatt, who stranded 26 runners in the last two games, and after Alicia Hollowell threw them two days of rise balls in batting practice, Balko and the Wildcat batters had a gleam in their eyes like they knew they'd worn down Abbott in game two and cracked her mystique. When the wall finally fell, it fell hard, and the Wildcats scored five runs on Monica Abbott, demolishing the carefully crafted storyline ESPN was feeding the audience, as the #1 seed showed why they have a pile of trophies in the case. And the more alluring and dangerous catcher (I'm just saying).