Each week during the regular season, we'll try to provide five things worth knowing about the most recent slate of games in college softball. It's not meant to be comprehensive, but in a busy world, it's a way to keep an eye on the road to Oklahoma City and the Women's College World Series -- as well as the scenic detours a season offers.
1. Can't catch the Emanuel sisters
Those must have been some amazing games of tag in the Emanuel household.
A season ago, Anna Swafford led Georgia with 20 stolen bases. That is an entirely respectable total, one that only four SEC players bettered in 2014, and especially so for a team with the kind of slugging potential that made gambling on steals a risky proposition. But freshman Cortni Emanuel might not even need until Valentine's Day this season to surpass Swafford's total. And her older sister, Sydni (they are the daughters of former NFL wide receiver Bert Emanuel), may be the only one who can stay on her heels.
Georgia opened its season with six comfortable wins at home against Coppin State, Illinois, Murray State and Winthrop (the Big Ten school among the pair the Bulldogs beat twice). Alex Hugo picked up where she left off a season ago, the All-American collecting three home runs, three triples, two doubles and 15 RBIs on the weekend. Still, if it's possible to overshadow that kind of performance, the younger Emanuel sister did just that. Playing her first college games, primarily as the leadoff hitter, she totaled 14 hits in 18 at-bats and stole 13 bases.
Also in her first season at Georgia after transferring from Texas Tech following a successful freshman season there, Sydni totaled 11 hits (including a home run that she can hold over her sister's head) and four stolen bases.
With those two at the top of the order, Hugo and Paige Wilson behind them and Chelsea Wilkinson in the circle (she picked up four wins and struck out 33 batters in 22 innings), Georgia doesn't have many pieces it needs to fill in.
There has already been a lot of talk on these pages about the career home run record Oklahoma's Lauren Chamberlain is chasing (she's now just 15 away from Stacey Nuveman after hitting three in her team's first five games). That's in part because home runs are glamorous and in part because Nuveman's record held up. But on the offensive side, there may not be a record more out of reach than former Georgia speedster Nicole Barber's 257 stolen bases. Second place on that list, former Mississippi State catcher Chelsea Bramlett, is 50 stolen bases shy of Barber -- essentially an entire season shy. And those are the only two players who even got to 200 career steals.
Is the youngest Emanuel going to challenge Barber? Who the heck knows. She had a special opening weekend, which means she only has about 98 percent of her career left to play. But she made it worthwhile to open the record book and take a look at what's potentially out there to chase. That's not a bad way to come out of the starting blocks.
2. Life without Dallas Escobedo
Very little is ever new. So while Arizona State losing three times at home the first weekend of the season comes close to fitting the description, and certainly ranks as the most disappointing start for a high-profile team (although a UCLA team with greater expectations losing twice isn't far behind), we've seen the outline of the story before.
The Sun Devils have been among the fortunate few in softball for nearly a decade because pitching has rarely been a concern. Consider that the last time they began a season without a pitcher who had experience starting a game in the Women's College World Series was 2009. And what do you know, that was also the last time the Sun Devils lost three games before the end of February -- it took between 22 and 38 games for that to happen the past five seasons.
So what happened in 2009, as Arizona State tried to move on without ace Katie Burkhart? It ended up in Oklahoma City in May, as usual, two runs away from being in the winner's bracket on Sunday. We're a long way from the World Series after freshmen pitchers Breanna Macha and Dale Ryndak combined to allow 39 hits, including eight home runs, in 40 2/3 innings. And they're a long way from providing the kind of innings Hillary Bach delivered as a freshman in 2009, let alone the innings Burkhart and Dallas Escobedo delivered en route to national championships during their time. Fortunately, we're also a long way from the postseason.
Yes, former coach Clint Myers is still watching his Auburn hitters pile up hits by the bushel, another twist to the story that leaves second-year coach Craig Nicholson to prove he can develop aces of his own. But a rocky transition from one pitching era to another? Even at Arizona State, we've seen it before.
3. The pitching duel that wasn't
There were only three games during the season's opening week between teams ranked in the top 10, and Florida State and Kentucky played two of them. So the spotlight was shining on the proceedings in Tallahassee.
Unfortunately a game of coaching chess, or at least unfortunate happenstance, broke out.
Lacey Waldrop is really good. Kelsey Nunley is really good. We're not breaking news on that front. But it would have been a lot of fun to see them go head to head once or twice for teams intent on proving trips to the World Series a season ago were not flukes.
Instead, the Seminoles and Wildcats split their two games, each team's ace beating the other team's understudy, Waldrop against Kentucky's Meagan Prince and Nunley against Florida State's Jessica Burroughs.
The understudies lost, but their performances were two of the more notable takeaways for both teams on the weekend. Prince recorded 21 strikeouts and just two walks in 16 innings, while Burroughs was a truly tough-luck loser. She didn't allow an earned run all weekend and struck out 22 batters against one walk in 13 innings. With Michigan, Nebraska and a very good Western Kentucky team coming to Tallahassee this weekend for five games in three days, Florida State is going to need Burroughs.
4. Who said anything about stage fright?
Emanuel wasn't the only newcomer to shine. The first time Oklahoma freshman Paige Parker pitched, she held St. Mary's to one hit and one walk in all five innings of a run-rule win and struck out eight batters on the second day of her college career. It was an impressive debut, but there was room for improvement. So the second time she started for the Sooners, with a save in relief between the starts, Parker was perfect. Against Hawaii in Honolulu, never an easy assignment, the freshman worked all five innings in another run-rule win, stuck out nine batters and didn't allow a hit or a walk, the ninth perfect game in Oklahoma history.
So it went across the country. Rated by some services as the nation's top recruit, Oregon's Jenna Lilley went 10-for-19 at the plate with three walks and no strikeouts and drove in seven runs. Based a few hundred miles to the north, Washington's Taylor Van Zee posted almost identical numbers, going 8-for-16 with six RBIs, a triple and a home run. While much of the talk out of Arizona in recent weeks was about Nancy Bowling starting games in the circle freshman Trish Parks pitched 13 innings in the team's three games, all in relief, and picked up two wins. That while also collecting two extra-base hits and five RBIs at the plate.
In the SEC, LSU freshman Allie Walljasper got only one start in what is suddenly an intriguingly crowded pitching rotation in Baton Rouge with the addition of Stanford transfer Carley Hoover, but the junior national team selection made it count with a four-hit shutout. Alabama and Florida, looking for depth behind returning pitchers, got just that from freshmen. Alabama's Alexis Osorio went 3-0 with 25 strikeouts in 13 2/3 innings, while Florida's Aleshia Ocasio, went 2-0 with 18 strikeouts in 12 2/3 innings, more than ether Delanie Gourley or Lauren Haeger.
5. Minnesota has the look
Sometimes one weekend isn't a sign of things to come. Stanford came out of the gates strong a season ago, scoring 60 runs in a perfect 6-0 start against decent competition. The Cardinal went 24-25 the rest of the way and missed the NCAA tournament. So much for that. As the late-night commercials tell us, past performance is not a guarantee of future success.
But there are also times when one weekend leaves a feeling that there is more to come for a team.
When Minnesota, finally on grass and fresh out of the gym in a frigid preseason in the Upper Midwest, not only beat Washington in its opening game but run-ruled the Huskies in five innings with a freshman, Danielle Parlich, driving in five runs, it did catch the eye. The rest of the weekend in Las Vegas lacked similar marquee opponents, but wins against Louisville and host UNLV and 50 runs in five games overall don't hurt the resume.
The question for the Gophers is how much depth exists beyond some not insubstantial star power. Enough to win the Big Ten? Enough to get to Oklahoma City? Enough to win it all? That's particularly pressing in the circle, where Sara Moulton now throws her pitches in National Pro Fastpitch. Sophomore Sara Groenewegen won all three of her starts this past weekend, including the shutout against Washington, and struck out 26 batters in 16 innings. An All-American in the making, albeit a Canadian one, she may need to carry a heavy workload this season. If that's not too much to ask, the answers to some or all of those questions could make it a good spring in the Twin Cities -- when the thaw finally arrives.