Four Exclamation Points

If you haven't noticed, Caitlin Clark is selling out every arena where she and the Indiana Fever have been playing so far on the young season. 

TigerBlog continues to try to find a comparable situation to the Clark phenomenon. If you have one, let TB know.

Obviously, the women's college sport that draws the highest ratings on television is basketball. With Clark's presence with Iowa this past year, the women's final outdrew the men's, as you may recall.

What sport is in second place for women in TV ratings? That would be softball.

And, just like in basketball, the Women's College World Series outdraws its baseball counterpart, and it's not particularly close. There's a huge audience for the sport, and this is when those ratings start to skyrocket. 

Oh, and in the interest of complete honesty, softball ratings on ESPN destroy the ratings for men's lacrosse by pretty much two-to-one.

Speaking of softball, TigerBlog's new friend Hoot and his Baylor team are still playing beyond the first weekend of the NCAA tournament.

As you hopefully recall, "Hoot" is Baylor assistant coach Steve Johnigan. TB reached out to him last week when the Princeton softball team was placed with Baylor in the same regional, the one that was played in Lafayette, Louisiana.

TB was struck by the nickname on his bio and asked him about it. Hoot got back to TB quickly, and so, if Princeton couldn't win, TB was now rooting for Baylor.

Okay, maybe he and Hoot aren't quite buddies or anything. Still, TB did email him Sunday night, after the Bears had won the final game of the regional against Louisiana, by the score of 4-3. This came after Louisiana had forced the if-necessary game with a 13-0 win in the first game Sunday.

Next up for the Bears will be a Super Regional at fourth-ranked Florida. 

Hoot thanked TB for the good wishes. He also said this: 

"Wow! What competitors you guys are! Really got after it yesterday! You should be proud!"

If a team ever deserved an email where every sentence ended with an exclamation point, it was the Princeton softball team this weekend. No, the Tigers didn't advance, but it's not always about that.

Princeton had to face the No. 13 Ragin' Cajuns in Game 1 and fell 8-0, but the Tigers hardly went quietly in Louisiana.

To stay alive, Princeton had to come back against Ole Miss in the losers' bracket elimination game Saturday afternoon. This is Ole Miss of the Southeastern Conference, Ole Miss who was playing in its eighth-straight NCAA tournament.

So what happened? Cassidy Shaw threw five scoreless innings and Brielle Wright closed it out for a 4-2 win. For Wright, it was career save No. 11, which puts her in sole possession of the Ivy League record. Julia Dumais had a two-RBI hit with two outs in the fifth as the Tigers snapped a scoreless tie to go up 3-0.

The prize for that victory was a short rest and another elimination game, this time against Louisiana. It would be a much different game this time.

Wright started the game and finished the game. Shaw pitched in the middle. In the end, the game went eight innings before the Ragin' Cajuns eked out a 2-1 win. 

In case you forgot, Louisiana came into the regional as the No. 13 team in the country. The game was played in front of 1,562 hostile fans in Louisiana's ballpark — well, maybe hostile is too strong; how about really nice, friendly and welcoming but devoted to their team.

Yes. That effort is worth of the four exclamation points.

Princeton finished the season at 30-18, with another Ivy title and Ivy tournament title. The last time an Ivy school had won a game at an NCAA regional was back in 2012. 

Princeton is now 9-24 all-time in NCAA games. If that doesn't seem great, consider that every other team in the league is a combined 4-32.