CAROLYN BRAFF
Carolyn is an assistant editor and writer for CSTV.com. E-mail
The nation's top softball teams play a mind-numbing (and body-fatiguing) number of early-season tournaments designed to get the players in shape for conference play, and for the casual fan, the sheer volume of competition can be daunting to navigate.
Luckily, the 2008 Olympic Games provides a series of effective mile markers, as the U.S. Olympic Team's Bound for Beijing college tour makes stops at some of the top collegiate diamonds before heading overseas. Of the hundreds of scheduled matchups in the 2008 season, which gets underway today, several pop out as games not to be missed in the early going.
The Kajikawa Classic, hosted by Arizona, is a doozie of a tournament this season, and one of the premiere matchups takes place on day one, when No. 2 Texas A&M faces off against No. 7 Northwestern.
"I think our first tournaments are always important because that sets the tone for the rest of the season," said Texas A&M senior third baseman Jamie Hinshaw. "That's where a team can make a statement and set the tone for how they're going to play for the rest of the season."
While the Wildcats are ranked in the Top 10 to begin the year, they must prove deserving of that ranking after losing much of the hitting power that led the team to the Women's College World Series a season ago. At least half of Texas A&M's one-two pitching punch of Megan Gibson and Amanda Scarborough should be on display in this Top 10 matchup.
It doesn't get any better than this. All those who expect the nation's top two teams to battle for the WCWS title in June get a sneak preview in the second week of the season. The Aggies must travel for this early-season tune-up, which might give the advantage to the Wildcats, but Texas A&M starts its season a week earlier and will have already faced a Top 25 team (No. 18 Oregon State) while Arizona was still in preseason mode. No matter the outcome, this will be a hard-hitting, fast-paced game that features some of the best talent in the nation. The schedule-planning powers that be delivered a late holiday gift with this one.
"Our first tournament in Tempe, I'm looking forward to that the most," Arizona senior catcher Callista Balko said. "A lot of my family is going to be out there, but also it's our first tournament. It's really fun to see where everyone's at. You have the most jitters at that tournament, you have all the freshmen playing, it's a great opportunity to get out and play."
Feb. 19: U.S. National Team vs. No. 1 Arizona, Tempe, Ariz.
The first stop on the U.S. Team's Bound for Beijing tour pits National Team coach Mike Candrea against his home team -- two-time defending champion Arizona. Interim coach Larry Ray will lead the Wildcats while Candrea takes the opposite dugout in a rare opposition moment for the coaches who have worked together for 17 years.
"It always is," Ray said of how strange it would be to coach against his teammate.
The two men took the same roles four years ago, when Candrea led the Olympic team to a gold medal and Ray coached the Wildcats to a Pac-10 title.
"Looking at his dugout, there's no way he can make a bad decision," Ray said. "He's got the best players in the world almost at every position, so trying to put a little chink in that armor is going to be interesting, but that's what makes this game so interesting."
Candrea is not the only Wildcat who will be enjoying a homecoming on Feb. 19. Caitlin Lowe, class of 2007, is the most recently graduated Wildcat of four on the team, joining Jennie Finch, Alicia Hollowell and Lovieanne Jung.
"The Leadoff Classic in Columbus, Georgia, a lot of national powerhouse teams go to that tournament," said Jerry Bark, a 26-year veteran umpire of NCAA softball. "It's right up front, teams are still kind of trying to get that rust off, but you get to see a lot of players at that very first tournament."
On display in this matchup will be a handful of pitching aces, either Gibson or Scarborough for A&M and DePaul's sophomore ace, Becca Heteniak. As good as the A&M seniors have been in their past three seasons, Heteniak has the chance to be even better after recording a 1.20 ERA with 20 victories as a freshman. After two relatively cushy opening-season tournaments, A&M will be the Blue Demons' first true test of the 2008 season.
March 1: No. 1 Arizona vs. No. 16 Virginia Tech, Tucson, Ariz.
"Our spring break is going to be one of the biggest challenges we've ever tried to pull off," Virginia Tech coach Scot Thomas said. "We'll be playing Arizona, UCLA, Northwestern, Notre Dame and Cal State Northridge -- that's going to be a great week, but our whole month of March is pretty brutal."
The most brutal of that stint should be Tech's matchup with Arizona, which will feature two of the nation's top pitchers in Arizona's Taryne Mowatt and Virginia Tech's Angela Tincher. The best of the East takes on the best of the West in a game that is crucial for the Hokies as they continue their quest to prove the worth of their team in positions outside the circle. It's no secret that Tincher is one of the nation's best pitchers, but the rest of the team needs to better support her if Virginia Tech is going to make it beyond the NCAA Regionals. This game is the perfect opportunity for the Hokies to play up to their competition.
"I think our entire spring break is going to be a really good test for us," Tincher said. "Last year one of our biggest tournaments was Notre Dame and this year Notre Dame is in that tournament, but they're not even at the top, so that's a big difference."
April 12: U.S. National Team vs. No. 6 Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn.
Looking ahead to April, the National Team's most intriguing matchup may be in Knoxville, when Tennessee's all-everything ace Monica Abbott returns to campus in a different uniform. Assuming Coach Candrea starts the former Lady Vol against her alma mater, this game is definitely one worth watching, if only to see how Tennessee's coaches strategize around Abbott's strengths.
"We've scrimmaged against each other for three years, so we've played against each other before if you want to call it that," Tennesse senior infielder Tonya Callahan said of facing her former teammate. "I think it will be different seeing her in another uniform. As far as hitting off of her, us seniors have done that for three years now."
If the current Lady Vols can hit Abbott in this matchup, their confidence high should last them the rest of the season.
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