SOFTBALL: REMATCH HITS PRIME TIME UCLA-MICHIGAN MEET FOR FIRST TIME SINCE TITLE SERIES.Byline: Ramona Shelburne Ramona Shelburne is an American sports journalist currently writing for the Los Angeles Daily News. Shelburne was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She attended El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California where she was a class valedictorian. Staff Writer It wasn't exactly a scientific survey, but Carol Stiff heard enough around the water cooler at ESPN's Bristol, Conn., headquarters to know that the network's gamble - airing the Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Women's Softball Tournament for college softball in the United States. The tournament is conducted in an eight-team, double-elimination format. softball championship in prime time - had paid off. UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX and Michigan staged an epic, three-game title series last June, won by the Wolverines on Samantha Findlay's dramatic home run. The office was buzzing the next day, and Stiff, ESPN's senior director of programming and acquisitions, took notice. ``The next morning, everyone was talking about it,'' Stiff said. ``My boss came up to me and said, 'Let's get a rematch of that series on next year, during the regular season.' So we approached both schools about scheduling a game and went from there.'' And so was born today's made-for-TV rematch, in which No. 4 UCLA will play host to No. 9 Michigan at 6 p.m. ESPN ESPN Entertainment and Sports Programming Network 2 will show the game, giving unprecedented regular-season exposure to the sport. ESPN drew a 1.83 national rating for the deciding game of the title series, making it the fifth-highest-rated cable sports show of the week, behind only three NBA NBA abbr. 1. National Basketball Association 2. National Boxing Association NBA (US) n abbr (= National Basketball Association) → Basketball-Dachverband (= playoff games on TNT TNT: see trinitrotoluene. TNT in full trinitrotoluene Pale yellow, solid organic compound made by adding nitrate (−NO2) groups to toluene. and a Sunday night Chicago Cubs-Boston Red Sox game on ESPN, which drew a 2.0 rating. Three other World Series games also were among the top 10 cable events that week. There's been a strong reception for the rematch. UCLA started selling tickets through Ticketmaster - the first time the school has used the agency for softball - and 1,325-seat Easton Stadium is nearly sold out. ESPN is expecting a large television audience. UCLA coach Sue Enquist thinks it can only help the sport. As recently as six years ago, only the semifinals and World Series title game were televised. Now every game from the eight-team World Series is shown by ESPN, and CSTV CSTV College Sports Television CSTV Copy Salary Table Version , Fox Sports Net and other regional networks include softball in their programming. ``It's just a huge vote of confidence for us as a sport,''Enquist said. ``Back in the day, when I was playing, I never would've thought this would be possible. But ever since I've met the people at ESPN, I could tell they believed in the sport and its potential.'' Ramona Shelburne, (818) 713-3617 ramona.shelburne(at)dailynews.com |
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