The 2005 National Champion would be decided by one final game between Michigan and UCLA

UCLA scored a run in the second inning to give them an early lead

Apparently Batman and Captain America are Alessandra Giampaolo fans. One of the photographers was saying there was an Ohio State fan in the crowd that had come only to cheer against Michigan

An attempt to get a hit with a bunt

An error left quite a few UCLA runners on bases. Throughout the rest of the game, UCLA just kept getting batters on base

and Michigan kept getting itself out of the difficult innings. Having photographed around fifteen softball games this season, I find that I'm nearly out of different ways to take pitching photos.

Samantha Findlay hit one out to the outfield for a double that would bring in the game tying run.

Tied the game would stay. Michigan fans started high fiving the players inbetween innings.

In the 10th inning, first baseman Samantha Findlay blasted a home run out of the park to score three runs and put Michigan ahead 4-1. The team went nuts.

Rounding the bases.

Coming in to score. Three outs later, Michigan softball became National Champions for the first time in program history. This marks the first time a team team east of the Mississippi has had the title and The University of Michigan's second women's team to hold a national title.

And that wraps it up from Oklahoma City, it was definitely a great experience for us three Michigan Daily folks to be able to cover. Just as a random sidenote the NCAA is great for setting us all up which such great cheap lodging at the Mariott. After we uploaded the story and photo, we made the 15 hour drive back to Ann Arbor. I'll be in at the Daily tomorrow working w/ all these world series photos (I took about 5,000 photos in Oklahoma total) for the full page spread we're planning for Monday's paper.

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