ESPN MLB analyst Curt Schilling has been added to the Women’s College World Series Championship Finals telecasts featuring No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 1 Florida in a best-of-three series which begins Monday, June 1, on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. ET from OGE Energy Field at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Okla. Schilling, a three-time MLB World Series Champion and current Sunday Night Baseball analyst, will be a field analyst for each game of the Championship Finals, joining ESPN veteran softball commentators Beth Mowins (play-by-play), Jessica Mendoza (analyst), Michele Smith (analyst), and Holly Rowe (reporter). The Championship Finals will continue with Game 2 on Tuesday, June 2, and a decisive Game 3 on Wednesday, June 3, if necessary, both on ESPN starting at 8 p.m.

 

The Women’s College World Series began on Thursday, May 28, with eight teams competing in double-elimination bracket play, where Michigan and Florida both went 3-0 to advance into the Championship Finals. The Wolverines and Gators both seek their second NCAA Division I Softball National Championship in school history, with Michigan winning its first in 2005 and Florida last season. If Florida were to win, the Gators would be the first back-to-back national champions since Arizona in 2006 and 2007.

The Women’s College World Series is the conclusion of the NCAA Division I Softball Championship. A complete bracket can be found here.

• Mendoza and Smith: Decorated former softball players Jessica Mendoza and Michele Smith will be the booth analysts for the Championship Finals. Mendoza is a four-time All-American at Stanford and a member of gold medal-winning team at the 2004 Athens Olympics and silver medal-winning team at 2008 Beijing Olympics. Smith is a two time All-American at Oklahoma State and a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist (Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000) and eight-time Japan Pro League MVP.
• Baseball Tonight: ESPN’s Baseball Tonight will provide coverage of the WCWS with live reports from Oklahoma City featuring Schilling and ESPN’s commentating team.
  • ESPNU’s Women’s College World Series Pregame andPostgame: ESPNU will televise a 30-minute preview and postgame show before and after Game 2 of the Women’s College World Series Championship Finals on Tuesday, June 2, at7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., respectively. If a Game 3 is necessary, ESPNU will televise another 30-minute preview and postgame show on Wednesday, June 3, at 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.
  • SEC Network: Adam Amin and Amanda Scarborough will be on-site covering Florida for SEC Now. The news and information show will have pre and postgame coverage and feature interviews with both Florida head coach Tim Walton and players.

• espnW: Online coverage continues, led by espnW’s softball index with comprehensive recaps and analysis.
• Social Media: @ESPNU, @espnW, and @NCAASoftball will provide news, game updates, photos and videos through out the Women’s College World Series Championship Finals. Fans can join the conversation by tagging their tweet #WCWS.

Women’s College World Series Championship Finals

Date

Time (ET)

Game

Network

Mon, June 1

8 p.m.

Women’s College World Series Championship Finals: Game No. 1 
No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 1 Florida

ESPN2

Tues, June 2

8 p.m.

Women’s College World Series Championship Finals: Game No. 2
No. 1 Florida vs. No. 3 Michigan

ESPN

Wed, June 3

8 p.m.

Women’s College World Series Championship Finals: Game No. 3*

ESPN

*If necessary
Networks are subject to change

— Courtesy of ESPN 

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These are the best offers for Apple iPhone contracts from the best network providers below. This month sees a range of exclusive price-drop deals on the most popular Apple handsets: iPhone X and the new iPhone XS and XS Max. The below deals are split across storage variants and are all market-leading.

Best iPhone XS Contract Deals

By far the best contract deal for the iPhone XS available right now, and you only have to pay £99 upfront! This deal is on the Three network so you’ll get lots of added value like personal hotspot and great roaming deals when you’re abroad.

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If you don’t want to limit your data, this deal is worth checking out. Three combines a huge 100 gigs of data with unlimited minutes and texts. There’s a £99 upfront cost but then you’ll only be paying £71 per month for 24 months. Don’t forget Three is probably the best network for roaming, allowing you to use up to 12GB of data in 49 European destinations and 71 destinations worldwide.

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Best iPhone XS Max Contract Deals

The best high-data plan for the Apple iPhone XS Max comes from Direct Mobiles. The upfront cost is free and you’re only paying £66 per month after. This deal originally came with 25 gigs of data, but Mobile Phones Direct has tied together an exclusive with O2 so that users can enjoy 75 gigs of data instead.

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This is a great deal because you get four times the amount of storage, but only pay £6 more per month than the deal above. The downside? Only 8 gigs of data, which is something you can expect if you want a good deal on the 256GB variant of the iPhone XS Max.

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Previously, it was impossible to think you could pay less than a £300 upfront cost for the iPhone XS Max 512GB variant. Sky has proved that wrong this month with this deal. Pay a small upfront cost of £12 and an equally small monthly cost of £59 to get 2 gigs of data, unlimited minutes and texts on the best phone in the market right now with the biggest amount of storage.

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Best iPhone X Deals

This is an incredible deal on the iPhone X. Pay nothing upfront and only £53 per month to get a massive 50 gigs of data on the EE network. For those of you who don’t know, EE has been voted the best for 5 years in a row. Part of the reason why is because EE give freebies away, such as 3 months worth of BT Sport and 6 months worth of Apple Music with their contracts.

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CHICAGO — News from an American Heart Association conference over the weekend reveals a lot about what works and what does not for preventing heart attacks and other problems.

Dietary supplements missed the mark, but a prescription-strength fish oil showed promise. A drug not only helped people with diabetes control blood sugar and lose weight, but also lowered their risk of needing hospitalization for heart failure.

Good news for everyone: You no longer have to fast before a blood test to check cholesterol. Don’t stop at the doughnut shop on your way to the clinic, but eating something before the test is OK for most folks, the guidelines say.

They’re from the Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology and are endorsed by many other doctor groups. No authors had financial ties to drugmakers.

Here are highlights from the conference, which wraps up Monday:

Cholesterol

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. High cholesterol leads to hardened arteries that can cause a heart attack or stroke. When guidelines were last revised five years ago, they moved away from just using cholesterol numbers to determine who needs treatment and toward a formula that takes into account age, high blood pressure and other factors to more broadly estimate risk.

That was confusing, so the new guidelines blend both approaches, setting targets based on the formula and considering individual circumstances, such as other medical conditions or a family history of early heart disease.

“It will never be as simple as a single cholesterol number,” because that doesn’t give a clear picture of risk, said one guideline panel member, Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones of Northwestern University.

If treatment is needed, the first choice remains a statin such as Lipitor or Crestor, which are sold as generics for a dime a day. For people at high risk, such as those who have already had a heart attack, the guidelines suggest adding Zetia, which is also sold as an inexpensive generic, if the statin didn’t lower cholesterol enough.

Only if those two medicines don’t help enough should powerful but pricey newer drugs called inhibitors be considered. Many insurers limit coverage of them and the guidelines say they’re not cost-effective except for folks at the very highest risk.

Finally, if it’s unclear whether someone needs treatment, the guidelines suggest a coronary artery calcium test, which looks for hardening of the arteries, to help decide. It’s a type of X-ray with a radiation dose similar to a mammogram and costs $100 to $300, which most insurers do not cover. Lloyd-Jones and others defended its use.

“Half of people will have a zero calcium score and can avoid a statin very safely,” a quarter will score high and need treatment, and the rest will need to weigh options with their doctors, he said.

The Cleveland Clinic’s Dr. Steven Nissen, who had no role in the guidelines, called them a big improvement but disagreed with “using a test that involves radiation to decide whether to give a drug that costs $3 a month,” referring to the price of statins. A cheap test to check for artery inflammation would be better, he said.

Fish oil, vitamin D

Two major studies gave mixed results on fish oil, or omega-3 fatty acids. There are different types, including EPA and DHA.

In a study of 26,000 healthy people, one gram a day of an EPA/DHA combo, a dose and type found in many dietary supplements, showed no clear ability to lower the risk of heart problems or cancer.

But another study testing four grams a day of Amarin Corp.’s Vascepa, which is concentrated EPA, found it slashed heart problems in people at higher risk for them because of high triglycerides, a type of fat in the blood, and other reasons. All were already taking a statin, and there’s concern about the results because Vascepa was compared to mineral oil, which can interfere with statins, and may have made the comparison group fare worse. Still, some doctors said Vascepa’s benefits seemed large enough to outweigh that worry.

The study that tested the lower amount of fish oil in the general population also tested vitamin D, one of the most popular supplements, and found it did not lower the risk of cancer or heart problems.

“I think we need to accept that that’s a good test” and that the vitamin is not worthwhile, said Dr. Jane Armitage of England’s Oxford University. “We do not see any benefit.”

“Don’t waste your money on those supplements,” which are not well regulated and are of varying quality, said Dr. Deepak Bhatt of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Diabetes

People with diabetes often die of heart disease or heart failure, and new diabetes medicines are required to be tested in large studies to show they don’t raise heart risks. One such medicine, Jardiance, surprised doctors a few years ago by lowering the risk of heart attacks and strokes. A second medicine, Invokana, later showed similar benefits but with some worrisome side effects.

A new study tested a third drug, Farxiga, in more than 17,000 diabetics with other heart risk factors and found a lower rate of hospitalization for heart failure or death from heart-related causes — five per cent among those on the drug versus six per cent in a placebo group after four years of use. That’s on top of the drug’s known benefits for controlling diabetes.

Certain infections and a serious buildup of acids in the blood were more common with Farxiga but these were rare and are known complications of the drug. It costs about $15 a day, about the same as similar medicines. Farxiga’s maker, AstraZeneca, sponsored the study and many study leaders consult for the company.

One independent expert, Dr. Eric Peterson, a Duke University cardiologist and one of the conference leaders, said doctors have been eager to know if the earlier studies suggesting these drugs might help hearts were a fluke. Results from the new study, the largest so far, “could make this class of drugs much more standardly used” for diabetics with high heart risks or heart failure, he said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In a wild and competitive week that witnessed only four top-25 programs go undefeated, Oregon becomes the third squad to claim the No. 1 ranking this season in the USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll, announced Tuesday by the Association.

 

The Ducks (30-4) are coming off a 5-1 week and received 18 out of a possible 32 first-place votes and 781 total points. Oregon closed out with a Pac-12 series win over then-No. 19 Washington taking the bookend games over the weekend. Behind Cheridan Hawkins’ perfect game, they triumphed in game one, 8-0, and after a 10-2 defeat in game two, the Ducks clinched the series with a 15-6 win. Oregon returns to No. 1, a spot it held for the final six weeks of the 2014 regular season.

Following a 2-2 week, LSU fell out of the top spot and comes in at No. 2 after receiving 12 first-place votes and 767 points. The Tigers (32-3) opened with an 8-0 victory over then No. 24 South Alabama, but suffered a pair of defeats in a SEC road series at then-No. 16 Kentucky (1-3 / 2-5) before salvaging the final game in Lexington (2-0).

Florida (32-4), Michigan (31-5), Alabama (25-7) and Oklahoma (28-5) held steady at three through six. The Gators and Crimson Tide wrapped up their series on Monday, splitting their twinbill in Tuscaloosa with UF taking game two (4-1) and Alabama avoiding the series sweep with a 5-1, game-three triumph. The Gators, who received a first-place vote, stayed on the road, taking two-of-three at RV Mississippi State (3-2 / 16-2 / 3-5).

The Wolverines put together a 3-1 week with a victory over in-state foe Western Michigan (8-2) and taking a Big 10 series from Iowa (6-0 / 7-4 / 4-6). After their series versus the Gators, the Tide trumped Georgia Tech (11-0) and won its league series against No. 23 Texas A&M (13-0 / 8-5 / 5-11).

Undefeated last week, the Sooners received one first-place vote and inched closer to the top five after scoring 43 runs in a three-game Big 12 road sweep of Texas Tech (9-1 / 13-5 / 21-6).

Joining Oklahoma as the other top-25 teams to go undefeated last week were No. 11 Tennessee (25-7), No. 16 UCF (34-5) and No. 24 James Madison (27-6). No. 25 Texas, which was receiving votes a week ago, moved back into the top-25 following a 5-0 week.

No. 7 Auburn (35-4) moved up a spot after going 3-2 on the road against then-No. 11 Florida State (7-10 / 10-4) and then-No. 20 Missouri (14-6 / 4-5 in 8 inn. / 10-8). The Seminoles (30-8) made their way back into the top 10 at No. 8. After FSU split with the Tigers, it shut out Pitt (8-0 / 7-0 / 3-0) in a home ACC series.

Rounding out the top-10 is Georgia (30-6), falling two spots to No. 9, and UCLA (30-6), which remained 10^th for the second straight week. 

As stated earlier, No. 25 Texas (23-9) enjoyed a 5-0 week with walk-off wins over UTSA (2-1 / 3-2) and three Big 12 victories at then-No. 22 Kansas (6-0 / 11-5 / 7-5) to slide into the top-25 for the first time since the second regular season poll. The Jayhawks fell out of the top Top-25 for the first time since entering on March 3. 

The USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll is voted on by 32 NCAA Division I head coaches, one representing each conference.  Current 2015 records are shown and first-place votes are in parentheses.

USA Today/NFCA Division I Softball Poll – March 31, 2015

Rank

Team

2015 Record

Totals

Prev. Rank

1

Oregon (18)

30-4

781

2

2

LSU (12)

32-3

767

1

3

Florida (1)

32-4

732

3

4

Michigan

31-5

689

4

5

Alabama

25-7

667

5

6

Oklahoma (1)

28-5

661

6

7

Auburn

35-4

597

8

8

Florida State

30-8

517

11

9

Georgia

30-6

498

7

10

UCLA

30-6

480

10

11

Tennessee

25-7

476

15

12

Louisiana-Lafayette

27-5

473

9

13

Kentucky

23-9

436

16

14

Minnesota

27-4

415

12

15

Baylor

24-7

349

13

16

UCF

34-5

299

18

17

California

26-7

281

17

18

Arizona

28-9

264

14

19

Arizona State

24-11

245

21

20

Washington

31-9

240

19

21

Missouri

22-7

176

20

22

South Alabama

24-7

91

24

23

Texas A&M

25-9

82

23

24

James Madison

27-6

72

25

25

Texas

23-9

27

RV

New to Poll: No. 25 Texas

Dropped out: No. 22 Kansas (29-5) 

Others Receiving Votes: Kansas (25), Notre Dame (22), Mississippi State (13), North Dakota State (7), Western Kentucky (5), South Carolina (4), USC Upstate (2), Virginia Tech (2), UAB (2), Hofstra (2), Cal State Northridge (1).

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The National Fastpitch Coaches Association is pleased to announce the 2015 NFCA NAIA All-America teams.

 

This year’s squad is comprised of 32 players representing 22 schools across the five NFCA geographic regions on each of two All-America teams.

Oklahoma City University led the way with five selections, three on the first team, while five other institutions — including national champion Auburn-Montgomery, Grand View, Oregon Tech, St. Xavier and Marian (Ind.) — had two players honored. Oregon Tech also had two first team honorees.

Representing Oklahoma City on the first team are outfielder Jocelin Diaz and at-large selections Kyndra Holasek (infield) and Jamie Rateliff (pitcher/outfield). Diaz, a first-team all-Sooner Athletic Conference selection, hit 449 with 13 home runs and 69 RBI to go with 59 runs scored, 80 hits, 20 doubles, two triples, 14 stolen bases and a .989 field percentage. Holasek, a SAC first-teamer, boasted a .450 average with 91 hits, 76 runs scored, 21 doubles, 13 homers, 76 RBI and 26 steals.  At the plate, Rateliff hit .390 with 18 doubles, 16 home runs and 57 RBI, while going 36-7 in the circle with a 2.03 ERA, eight shutouts, four saves and 120 strikeouts.

Oregon Tech designated layer Tara Moates and outfielder McKenzie Shrum garnered first team recognition for the Owls. Moates, the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) Player of the Year, batted .479 with a school-record and NAIA-best 101 hits. She drove in 73 runs, scored 58 times, recorded 14 long balls and registered 12 doubles. Her RBI, hits, average and total bases led the CCC. A first team All-CCC awardee, Shrum finished in the conference top 10 in batting average (.411), on base percentage (.498), RBI (47) and total bases (130).  She led the league in runs scored (68) and was second in hits (86), triples (3) and stolen bases (20).

Headlining the pitchers are NAIA Player of the Year Cassie Jones of two-time national championship Auburn-Montgomery and NAIA Pitcher of the Year, Nicole Nonnemacher of St. Xavier, who earned a spot as an at-large. Jones finished her career as one of the most decorated pitchers in NAIA history and had a phenomenal 2015 campaign. Jones led the NAIA in wins (35), ERA (0.85), opponent batting average (.103), and total batters struck out (411). In 46 appearances, she recorded 17 shutouts and went 35-5 on the year. Her strikeouts and shutouts rank seventh and ninth (tie) in the NAIA season record books. 

Nonnemacher posted a 27-5 mark in the circle with 17 shutouts, a 1.02 ERA and 385 strikeouts. In 206.1 innings, she landed No. 1 in strikeouts per seven innings (13.06) and was No. 2 in opponent’s batting average, ERA and strikeouts, while ranked third in wins.

Garnering the first-team nod at catcher is Reinhardt’s Randi Wimpy. Wimpy, the two-time Appalachian Athletic Conference Player of the Year, finished fifth in the country in slugging (.912) and 22^nd in RBI (57). She led the Lady Eagles squad with a .447 batting average to go along with 16 doubles, 11 home runs, 53 runs scored and 42 walks.

The first-team first baseman is Cassidy Littlefield of Georgia Gwinnett College. Leading the Grizzlies to their first conference title and top-25 national ranking, Littlefield batted .462 with 80 hits, 17 doubles, eight triples and a school-record-tying seven home runs to go along with 40 stolen bases. Ranked in the top 20 in 17 statistical categories, she scored a program-record 75 runs and topped the single-season marks with a .550 on base percentage and .775 slugging percentage.

Bellevue’s Ashley Gigaz is the first team’s second baseman. Gigax, the 2015 MCAC Player of the Year, set school records in 2015 for most home runs (21) and highest slugging percentage (.871), while leading the Bruins with a .424 batting average, 72 hits, 56 RBIs and a .490 on-base percentage. A six-time MCAC Player of the Week,

Jessica Grochala of Grand View University took home the first-team honors at third base. Grochala, the 2015 MCC Player of the Year, led the Vikings at the plate, batting .437 with 59 hits, 15 home runs, 12 doubles, two triples and 49 RBI. Nationally, Grochala was among leaders this season in slugging (6^th – .889), total bases per game (12^th – 2.609), home runs (14^th), total bases (34^th – 120), batting average (36^th) and RBI per game (37^th – 1.065).

Rounding out the infield is Davenport shortstop, KC Dunne. The senior led the team in many offensive categories, which were highlighted with a .458 batting average and 11 homeruns on the season. Dunne was also tied for the team lead in runs batted in with 52, while she was named the WHAC Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. 

Columbia College’s (Mo.) Carly Spalding is your final first-team outfielder following a record breaking 2015 campaign for the Cougars. She led the squad with a program-record .491 batting average and was second in single-season hits with 83. Coined American Midwest Conference Player of the Year, Spalding led the NAIA in hits per game (184), runs per game (1.47), triples (8) and total bases per game (2.96).  She also landed in the top ten in triples per game (0.18), stolen bases per game (1.18), stolen bases (53), batting average (0.491), hits (83) and runs scored (66).

Coming in as the first team’s utility player is Cat Maldonado of Southeastern University. Maldonado was The Sun Conference Player of the Year, hitting .395 with 16 home runs, 13 doubles, and 57 RBIs. Pitching, Maldonado was 12-3 with a 2.73 ERA in 89.2 innings of work. She finished the season ranked in the top 50 in the NAIA in eight offensive categories, including total bases (129), slugging percentage (.750), and hits (68).

Rounding out the five first-team at-large selections are outfielder Meghan Leubbert of Concordia University (Ore.) and Indiana Wesleyan freshman Alexandrea Springer. Leubbert helped her squad to a third-place finish at the NAIA World Series and school-record 46 wins. She hit 381 and ranked in the top five in the CCC with 81 hits, 66 runs scored, 70 RBI and 16 stolen bases. The sophomore also belted a CCC-record 21 round trippers and scored 66 runs, third most in a conference single season.

Springer, a first baseman/catcher, hit .450 with 42 extra base hits and 67 RBI. The Crossroads League Newcomer of the Year led the nation with 23 doubles and ranked second with 155 total bases, fourth with a .917 slugging percentage, fifth with 18 home runs and seventh with 2.67 total bases per game

NFCA member coaches in the five regions selected the teams. For the complete squad, click HERE

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Even when you make a list and check it twice, it can still be easy to forget someone during all the holiday bustle. While this can be a stressful thing for many — especially when you realize the week before Christmas — last-minute shopping doesn’t have to be hard.

Here, we’ve rounded up 21 of the best last-minute Christmas gifts for anyone you may have missed. With one of these ideas, they’ll never know you were scrambling to buy them something sweet.

1. “A Star Is Born” Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 2XLP

Buy it here: Urban Outfitters, $44.98

2. Plaid comfort kit

Buy it here: Canadian Tire, $34.99

3. Floral fauna candle

Buy it here: Anthropologie, $45.55

4. Winnipeg Jets pullover hoodie

Buy it here: Sport Chek, $79.99

5. Monogramed cheeseboard

Buy it here: Anthropologie, $91.10

6. Whiskey in a Teacup by Reese Witherspoon

Buy it here: Chapters, $20

7. Sony over-ear wireless headphones with mic

Buy it here: Best Buy, $124.99

8. Anomia Party Edition

Buy it here: Walmart, $55

9. Chunky cabin mitts

Buy it here: Roots, $42

10. Astrology by Bite Beauty lipstick set

Buy it here: Sephora, $95

11. Fjallraven laptop bag

Buy it here: Fjallraven, $124.99

12. Wine subscription box

Buy it here: Wine Collective, $57.24+

13. Narwhal indoor slippers

Buy it here: Forever 21, $19.90

14. Queer Eye: Love Yourself. Love Your Life.

Buy it here: Chapters/Indigo, $23.99

15. Milk & dark chocolate favourites gift box

Buy it here: Purdys Chocolatier, $45

16. Coeeze pants

Buy it here: Adidas, $90

17. Amazon Prime subscription

Buy it here: Amazon, $7.99/month

18. Fitbit Charge 3 SE Fitness Tracker

Buy it here: Sport Chek, $178.98

19. Calligraphy Made Easy Journal

Buy it here: Chapters/Indigo, $15.95

20. Jacquard scarf

Buy it here: Zara, $39.90

21. Ninja professional blender

Buy it here: Canadian Tire, $99.99