Q&A with ‘Patch Lady’ Carolan Bledsoe

Every Tuesday before the Women’s College World Series, Carolan Bledsoe checks into the downtown Sheraton with a sewing machine, toothbrush and a bag of snacks.

Over the next 24 hours, the great-grandmother and Yukon resident will sew NCAA World Series patches on as many as 320 uniforms, carefully stitching the intricately designed logos to the sleeves of every single player participating in the tournament.

Bledsoe, nicknamed the Patch Lady by many around the WCWS, has enjoyed the task since she took over just after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

caught up

Lubbock Regional

scored twice and drove in two more runs to lead Sam Houston State to a 4-3 victory over host Texas Tech, and the Bearkats are going to an NCAA super regional for the first time.

After Hearn reached on a fielder’s choice in the sixth inning to drive in a run and tie the game at three, he scored from first on second baseman throwing error that ricocheted down the right field line.

Sam Houston State (44-21), the Southland Conference tournament champ, dropped into the loser’s bracket after a 6-0 loss to Texas Tech on Saturday with her before the first game of the championship series as she sat on her red scooter at the top of the first base line with her husband, Larry.

A: “I used to work at the Myriad (the old Cox Convention night. But the Bearkats then beat Arizona for the second time in the regional and won twice against the Red Raiders (45-17), the No. 5 national seed and a College World Series team last season.

Houston Regional

struck out nine and took a shutout into the ninth inning as Texas A&M held on to beat Houston 4-3 on Monday, sending the Aggies to their third straight NCAA super regional.

hit a two-run single with two outs in the first inning off (2-1) to put the Aggies ahead to stay. hit a pinch-hit solo homer in the

Kruger gives support to Gasso, Sooners

played the role of fan Monday night.

Kruger, the Oklahoma men’s basketball coach, was at Hall of Fame Stadium to watch the Sooner softball team play Florida in the national championship series. He sat in the OU section with the rest of the fans.

Kruger, who played baseball at Kansas State and was drafted by the Houston Astros in 1970 and again by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1974, said he relished the opportunity to get back in a ballpark.

“Fantastic,” Kruger said. “It just keeps getting better. It’s great to see that there’s one site every year for the World Series. Just like in Omaha for Center). All Sports was across the street, behind the Sheraton. My friend did the tickets and she knew that I sewed, so she called me one year and she said, ‘Carolan, the lady who’s always done this for me has moved to Arkansas, can you do this?’ I thought sure, ‘No problem.’ Well the first year, sewing was easy. Then the patches got more elaborate. I used to get two days to do it, and I don’t get two days to do it anymore. I just get the one day. It’s become more of a challenge. It’s really fun and I really enjoy it. I love visiting with the all the people. The kids who’ve never been here before, I think it probably means more to them than to the people that are here all the time.”

“A lot longer than it used to. Used to be, they were round or square. They were little. (This year) It took me

top of the ninth to make it 4-0.

Gainesville Regional

Florida’s hit a three-run home run and got the win in relief on Monday as the Gators advanced to an NCAA Super Regional for the third straight year with a 6-1 victory over Bethune-Cookman.

The final game of the Gainesville Regional was scoreless until Langworthy’s homer to left in the sixth off

Langworthy started the game in left field but relieved starter

with two outs in the third and went four innings, allowing one run on two hits with a walk and baseball. The event deserves props for that, and Oklahoma City does a great job with it.”

Monday sets session record for attendance

The Women’s College World Series always attracts fans from all over the country.

Monday, though, there were a few more people than typical in the crowd.

A Session 8-record of 8,337 attended the first game of the national championship series between OU and Florida. The fans in attendance were treated to extra innings, as the Gators tied it 2-2 in the bottom of the seventh. The Sooners took the lead in the top of the 12th, 4-2. almost 48 hours. The first day (Monday) I did them at home. The last day (Tuesday), I go to the hotel and they bring (the jerseys) to me in the hotel. They have to have them on before they can come out (to the Hall of Fame Stadium) on Wednesday for their photo ops. They give me a hotel room and I go up there for 24 straight hours. I’m glued to the sewing machine.”

“First off, it depends on how they bat for where they go. If they’re lefthanded, they go on the right sleeve so that they’re always facing the camera in center field. And the right-handed batters get it on the left sleeve. The pitchers, we usually try to put it on the opposite arm than how they pitch. Then depending on what they’ve already got on their sleeve, whether they’ve got an SEC or a Big 12 logo or an alligator, then I have to adjust it.”

three strikeouts.

Fort Worth Regional

homered twice for the second game in a row and Dallas Baptist beat Virginia 11-8 in an elimination game Monday at the Fort Worth Regional. Listi’s tworun homer in the second put Dallas Baptist up 7-0, and his solo shot in the eighth was his 24th of the year.

also went deep for the Patriots, who have 11 homers in the regional and 95 this season. The Patriots (42-20) were set to play a late Monday game against host TCU, the No. 6 national seed.

FROM WIRE REPORTS Arkansas began play in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday afternoon needing two wins to advance to a winnertake-all regional final against Missouri State on Monday night.

By the time the topseeded Razorbacks finished off those two wins, they had turned what was supposed to be an evening at Baum Stadium into a nearly overnight affair — ending an epic 11-10 win over the Bears at 3:10 a.m. local time Monday morning.

What made the contest the most memorable of the NCAA Tournament so far wasn’t that is took six hours to play, including a 1-hour, 25-minute rain delay. Nor was it the fact the two teams restarted the game — in the third inning — at 12:35 a.m.

Standing out above all else at the Fayetteville Regional was that easily more than 1,000 of the original paid crowd of 9,038 fans in Baum Stadium were still on hand when Arkansas pitcher Evan Lee struck out Missouri State’s Justin Paulsen in the rain to end the game.

It might have been more than 12 hours after the Razorbacks were originally scheduled to start their first game a day earlier, but the win was well worth the wait.

“That was one of the greatest games I’ve ever been a part of,” said Arkansas’ Jared Gates, who hit a two-run home run to put the Razorbacks up 11-8 in the bottom of the eighth inning.

As great as the game was for casual observers and anyone from Arkansas, the length of the two games posed a certain number of challenges for the Razorbacks.

During the delay in the Missouri State game, the team ate what leftovers it had from its pregame meal prior to its first game — more than seven hours earlier. Hunger, though, wasn’t a problem for the Razorbacks.

At least not until following the win over the Bears.

“Right now, I’m really hungry,” Lee said at a postgame news conference at 3:35 a.m. “I’m looking for a Whataburger hamburger or something.”

For all the excitement into the early morning hours, the game wasn’t without its share of tense moments.

After having already defeated Oral Roberts in an elimination game earlier on Sunday — a game that started nearly an hour and a half late because of heavy rain — Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn wasn’t too keen on restarting the game with the Bears early Monday morning after rain had halted play in the third inning.

Bears coach Keith Guttin, though, was fine with continuing into the wee hours — particularly because his players were rested after avoiding the loser’s bracket thanks their 5-4 win over Arkansas on Saturday.

Those roles were reversed when the rain returned in the eighth inning. After Missouri State took an 8-7 lead in the top half of the inning, Guttin said home plate umpire Ramon Armendariz called for the tarp to once again be put on the field.

With the game approaching 3:00 a.m., it was a decision that would have all-but certainly ended play for the night (morning) and left the two teams to pick up play later in the day.

However, an animated Van Horn had other ideas — lobbying Armendariz hard from the Razorbacks dugout for the game to continue. Game on. “In the top of that inning, it seemed like we had to play defense in the rain,” Van Horn said. “... We wanted to play.”

Play they did, with the Razorbacks scoring three times in the bottom of the eighth to retake the lead. And all the while, a frustrated Guttin watched from the dugout — on the same field he stood on when Missouri State lost in the super regionals to the Razorbacks two years ago.