Quest for #112: Men's Golf NCAA Championship, Softball NCAA Super Regional Action Thread

You know the old saying: second place is simply the first loser.  And for the #2-seeded women's golf team, they weren't even able to claim that spot, falling to third place in the NCAA women's championship in Tulsa, coming up with a final score of 1145 (+25), with Duke (1130, +10) taking home the big prize.  Top-seeded Southern Cal (1132, +12) came close, but fell just short at the end, so there's some small solace in that for Bruin fans.  UCLA came out strong on the final day, shooting their best round of the tourney (278), but so did Duke and Southern Cal, giving UCLA no chance to try to close the gap.  There's always next year, which seems to be an increasingly common refrain in Westwood since Dan Guerrero took over as athletic director.

Turning to their male counterparts, the #18-seeded men's golf team got stuck in some poor weather in Hutchinson, Kansas, causing the first round of the NCAA men's golf championship to be suspended for weather.  The tourney is back underway (assuming the weather permits) today, and through a partial first round, the Bruins find themselves in fifth place (279, -1), with #22-seeded South Carolina (272, -8) currently on top of the leaderboard, although expect things to change a lot as teams complete their weather-delayed first rounds.

Heading over to the diamond, the #3-seeded softball team will host #14-seeded Kentucky in the best-of-three Super Regional series at Easton Stadium.  Winner advances to the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City beginning next week.  First though, the Lady Bruins will need to take down a tough Wildcat team, and will be relying on the arm (31-4, 1.64 ERA, 209.2 IP, 219 K) and bat (.388, 13 HR, 54 RBI, 9 SB) of Elk Grove native and Pac-12 Player of the Year Ally Carda to lead UCLA to, what we hope, will be UCLA's 112th NCAA national championship (113th if the men's golf team can make something happen in Kansas).  For more information on the series, you can check out the preview at the official site here.  First pitch is slated for 5 p.m. PST at Easton Stadium and if you can't make it out there on this gorgeous Southern California afternoon, you can catch the game live on ESPNU, or listen in live through the official site.

We have two more teams on the march toward UCLA's 112th NCAA national championship, so let's keep our fingers crossed and fire away with your thoughts, takes, and analysis as our men's golf team and softball team keep pushing for another Bruin national title.

GO BRUINS