{"id":6153,"date":"2011-06-06T13:53:21","date_gmt":"2011-06-06T18:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baylorproud.wpengine.com\/?p=6153"},"modified":"2011-06-06T13:53:21","modified_gmt":"2011-06-06T18:53:21","slug":"softball-ends-season-among-nations-final-four-teams-standing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2011\/06\/softball-ends-season-among-nations-final-four-teams-standing\/","title":{"rendered":"Softball ends season among nation&#8217;s final four teams standing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/galleries\/softballCWS11\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" title=\"softballcws2-may11\" src=\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/softballcws2-may11.jpg\" alt=\"Baylor softball\" width=\"225\" height=\"328\" \/><\/a>Picked to finish sixth in the Big 12 before the season began, the Baylor softball team instead was one of the nation&#8217;s last four teams remaining. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baylorbears.com\/sports\/w-softbl\/recaps\/060511aaj.html\" target=\"_blank\">Lady Bears advanced to the semifinals of the Women&#8217;s College World Series<\/a> &#8212; the best showing in program history &#8212; before falling to the tournament&#8217;s No. 1 overall seed, Arizona State, on Sunday. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/galleries\/softballCWS11\/\" target=\"_blank\">See our massive photo gallery from the week here.<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Appearing at the WCWS for just the second time ever, the Lady Bears made the most of their time in Oklahoma City. Head coach Glenn Moore&#8217;s squad opened play with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baylorbears.com\/sports\/w-softbl\/recaps\/060211aaa.html\" target=\"_blank\">a dramatic, extra-inning 1-0 win<\/a> over Oklahoma State on a walk-off home run, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baylorbears.com\/sports\/w-softbl\/recaps\/060511aab.html\" target=\"_blank\">then repeated the feat<\/a> (this time in 13 innings) against Missouri two days later. (Both home runs made ESPN&#8217;s Top 10 Plays the next day.)<\/p>\n<p>In the end, Baylor just couldn&#8217;t muster enough offense against the tournament&#8217;s top two seeds, losing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baylorbears.com\/sports\/w-softbl\/recaps\/060411aab.html\" target=\"_blank\">3-0 to No. 2 Alabama<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baylorbears.com\/sports\/w-softbl\/recaps\/060511aaj.html\" target=\"_blank\">4-0 to the top-ranked Sun Devils<\/a>. All-American Whitney Canion lived up to the honor, pitching every CWS inning but one for Baylor; the redshirt sophomore started four games in four days, striking out 34 batters in 33 innings and allowing just six earned runs (a 1.27 ERA) against four of the nation&#8217;s best teams.<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead to next year, Baylor will lose just two starters to graduation: shortstop Dani Leal and second baseman KJ Freeland. While no senior is ever easily replaced, the Lady Bears should be in good shape to continue this season&#8217;s success in 2012. Baylor finished the season 46-13, the fourth-most wins in program history; why not shoot for the record next year?<\/p>\n<p><em>[6\/15\/11 update: Baylor ranked fourth in the final polls from both the <\/em>USA Today<em>\/NFCA and ESPN.com\/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 polls, the highest-ever ranking in program history.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Sic \u2019em, Baylor softball!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Picked to finish sixth in the Big 12 before the season began, the Baylor softball team instead was one of the nation&#8217;s last four teams remaining. The Lady Bears advanced to the semifinals of the Women&#8217;s College World Series &#8212; the best showing in program history &#8212; before falling to the tournament&#8217;s No. 1 overall [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-athletics","category-honors","category-photo-galleries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}