DENVER - ESPNU today announced that it will televise the University of Hawai'i at Fresno State's Western Athletic Conference softball game on Friday, April 1. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. (PT).
Last year, the two teams battled for the WAC Tournament title, with Hawai'i winning 14-3 to capture its first WAC tournament to advance to its ninth NCAA tournament. The Rainbow Wahine are coming off their best season in program history (50-16) , during which they swept through the Stanford Regional, stunned top-seeded Alabama in Tuscaloosa to win the Super Regionals and advance to its first-ever Women's College World Series. Hawai'i shattered the NCAA record for home runs in a season with 158. Hawai'i returns 16 letterwinners, including National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Americans
Melissa Gonzalez and
Kelly Majam.
Fresno State went 41-21 and advanced to the championship game of the Los Angeles Regional, where it fell to eventual national champion UCLA. The Bulldogs remain the only team to have been selected to all 29 NCAA Tournaments.
This will be just the second WAC conference game to be televised by ESPNU. Last season, ESPNU televised the Louisiana Tech at Fresno State game on May 7, 2010.
Hawai'i has been televised on the ESPN family of networks 12 times, including six games last year at the Super Regional and WCWS games. Fresno State has made 15 appearances on national television.
Hawai'i's Appearances on ESPN Networks
2007 NCAA Regionals (Los Angeles, Calif.)
May 18 vs. UC Santa Barbara W, 2-0 (10 innings)
May 19 at UCLA, W, 3-1 (8 innings)
May 20 vs. Loyola Marymount, W, 9-0 (6 innings)
2007 NCAA Super Regionals (Knoxville, Tenn.)
May 25 at Tennessee, L, 0-9 (5 innings)
May 26 at Tennessee, W, 9-6
May 26 at Tennessee, L, 1-7
2010 NCAA Super Regionals (Tuscaloosa, Ala.)
May 29 at Alabama, L, 0-8 (5)
May 29 at Alabama, W, 8-7
May 30 at Alabama, W, 5-4
2010 NCAA Women's College World Series (Oklahoma City, Okla.)
June 3 vs. Missouri, W, 3-2
June 4 vs. UCLA, L, 2-5
June 5 vs. Arizona, L, 1-5
ESPNU launched March 4, 2005. The 24-hour college sports television network televises more than 650 live events annually. Action includes a variety of top football and men's and women's basketball games, as well as Olympic sports from 26 Division I conferences. ESPNU is the destination for premier high school programming, including elite football and basketball events. The network also has a wide-ranging agreement with the NCAA for extensive coverage of 22 NCAA Championships.
ESPNU offers over 400 original studio shows, including SportsCenterU, ESPNU Recruiting Insider, The Experts, The Bracket, BCS Countdown and is the television home of ESPN Radio's The Herd with Colin Cowherd. The brand is also available in high definition on ESPNU HD, now in over 17 million homes. In addition, ESPNU Campus Connection is a multiplatform, student-generated content initiative to enhance the network's link to college campuses nationwide.
ESPNU has seen a steady increase since its inception and is now in approximately 73 million households across the country. The network has long-term carriage agreements with all 10 of the top multichannel TV providers – Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV (Channel 208), DISH Network (Channel 141), Mediacom, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS TV and AT&T U-verse.
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