Courtesy of Baylor Athletics
WACO, Texas – Baylor and Florida’s softball teams get the honor of kicking off the 2014 Women’s College World Series Thursday, playing the first game of the eight-team double-elimination tournament at 11 a.m. on ESPN. The No. 13 seed Baylor Lady Bears will face the No. 5 seeded Florida Gators in Oklahoma City at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium.
Baylor (47-14) clinched a spot in its third WCWS Saturday by sweeping through the Athens, Georgia Super Regionals with a pair of wins over Georgia. Florida (50-12) won the best-of-three series against Washington at the Gainesville, Florida Super Regional in three games to earn a trip to Oklahoma City.
The winners of Baylor vs. Florida and (8) Florida State vs. (1) Oregon will play Friday at 6 p.m. on ESPN2 while the losers play Saturday at 11 a.m. on ESPN2 in an elimination game.
Fans wishing to purchase tickets for the event will need visit the NCAA’s Championship website or follow the link here: http://www.ncaa.com/championships/softball/d1/tickets-hospitality. Baylor will post a WCWS website Tuesday on BaylorBears.com so fans can follow the action all week long.
Florida State and Oregon face off at 1:30 p.m. on ESPN Thursday while (6) Louisiana-Lafayette takes on (14) Kentucky at 6 p.m. on ESPN2. (7) Oklahoma and (2) Alabama will play the final opening round game Thursday at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN2.
The Lady Bears will be the visiting team against the Gators. All games are played at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and all broadcasts are available on WatchESPN.
The Lady Bears are 3-4 all-time in the WCWS with appearances in 2007 and 2011. Baylor reached the semi-finals in 2011. Whitney Canion, Holly Holl, Clare Hosack and Liz Paul, all seniors on the 2014 squad, were members of the 2011 WCWS Baylor team.
Baylor leaves for Oklahoma City from the Getterman Stadium parking lot at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Media availability will be held Monday afternoon at 1:45 p.m. on the field at Getterman Stadium.
