CLIFF BRUNT
CLIFF BRUNT
AP Sports Writer
OKLAHOMA CITY — Florida won its second straight national championship behind Lauren Haeger’s complete game in a 4-1 victory over Michigan on Wednesday night.
Haeger allowed five hits and struck out five. She reached base on all four of her plate appearances, earning most outstanding player honors.
Florida became just the third program to repeat as Women’s College World Series champion, and the first since Arizona in 2006-07.
The players threw their gloves up in the air, and Haeger jumped up and down excitedly in the pitcher’s circle before she was rushed and the team formed a pile.
As Haeger and coach Tim Walton participated in an on-field interview, two players tried to douse them with Gatorade. But the bucket was too heavy, and they ended up just getting Walton’s ankles.
The Gators (60-7) scored all their runs in the first two innings. Justine McLean had two hits and Taylor Schwarz knocked in two runs for Florida.
Michigan (60-8) was going for its first title since 2005. Haylie Wagner, who shut out Florida on Tuesday to keep the Wolverines alive, got the loss. Megan Betsa allowed just one hit and didn’t yield a run in four innings of relief.
Haeger singled in Kelsey Stewart in the bottom of the first to give Florida a 1-0 lead. It was the first earned run against Wagner in 20 innings at the World Series. Schwarz’s single with two outs knocked in Nicole DeWitt and Haeger to make it 3-0.
Stewart doubled in the second inning to score McLean as Florida took a 4-0 lead and chased Wagner. Betsa came in and struck out two batters with the bases loaded to end the inning.
Haeger hit the first two batters in the third inning. Michigan loaded the bases with two outs before Haeger struck out Kelly Christner.
Michigan’s Tera Blanco broke Haeger’s no-hitter in the top of the fifth, and the Wolverines got on the board when Sierra Romero’s single scored Blanco.
Wagner returned to the mound in the sixth inning with her team down 4-1 and escaped a bases-loaded jam, but Michigan couldn’t get it going against Haeger.
• Women’s softball grows as exposure, crowds increase
Carol Hutchins remembers what coaching college softball was like when she began her run at Michigan three decades ago.
She recalls facilities that weren’t much different than those at high schools, limited media coverage and little television exposure.
This year, her Wolverines advanced to the Women’s College World Series earlier than other teams, giving her a chance to sit back and watch the other Super Regionals on television. That’s when she got a clear view of how much the sport has changed.
“Watching all those filled stadiums all across the country and the fantastic TV coverage — it’s a dream come true for some of us who have been around a long time, because this sport has gone through the roof,” said Hutchins, who is wrapping up her 31st season at Michigan. “And it’s a credit to, of course, the power of TV, and it’s a credit to the institutional support that we’ve all received, and all the great coaches and student-athletes in the game.”
Division I softball continues to grow, despite the fact that the sport is no longer played in the Olympics. The number of schools sponsoring the sport has increased from 143 in 1982 to a record 293 this year. The NCAA Tournament had just 16 teams in 1982 and drew 17,740 fans. In 2012 and 2013, the 64-team tournament drew more than 150,000.
The WCWS, which features the top eight teams and is played at Oklahoma City’s ASA Hall of Fame Stadium, has grown, too. Even without a local team in the field, four of the top 10 sessions in event history have come this year. Seating capacity at the stadium was about 2,000 in 1999, but expansion and increased interest has brought crowds above 9,000. Plans are in place to increase capacity to about 13,000 by 2020.
“There’s not a better place to be,” Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said. “The stadium, the people, the media — the coverage has doubled, tripled since we started. And it is so much fun for us.”
Sharon Cessna, the NCAA’s director of championships for the past 11 years, said the players have consistently improved and made the NCAA want to promote the sport more.
“Their skill level, their speed and agility make it a much higher product than was out there 11 years ago,” she said. “The bar has been raised, because the student athletes have made us raise it.”
Hutchins agreed that incoming players have more advanced skills.
“There’s more talent than ever,” she said. “There’s more dreams for young kids because going to college and playing softball is their dream.”
The WCWS has become one of the top showcases for Team USA talent. Eight members of the senior national team made it to Oklahoma City, and seven of the eight teams had at least one player on the national team.
The connection between the Division I game and USA Softball is significant. The U.S. national coach, Ken Eriksen, coaches South Florida and is a member of the Division I national committee. He said the level of play at college has helped keep the players at a high level so that the national program can be ready if the sport returns to the Olympics as hoped in 2020.
“It’s the minor leagues,” he said. “It’s our Triple-A program.”