In doing research for another of my blogs, on college softball, I was alerted that the team from my school, Texas Tech, was doing something unusual offensively in its opening Big 12 tournament game against Missouri. Indeed, as I confirmed in the partial screen capture below from a CSTV Gametracker (and elsewhere), the Red Raiders had hit seven straight singles (you can click on the graphic to enlarge it).
The Red Raiders' special media kit for the Big 12 tournament provides a treasure trove of information. For one thing, Texas Tech entered the conference tourney with a .251 batting average (overall season), the second-lowest in the league. Also, in fewer than half of their Big 12 contests (7-of-18) did the Raiders amass at least 7 hits for an entire game!
A crude estimation of Texas Tech's probability of getting seven hits in a row (putting aside the fact that they were all singles) would be .251 raised to the seventh power, which yields .00006 (6-in-100,000). Taking into account that the Red Raiders would have several opportunities within the game -- let alone an entire season -- to record such a streak, the odds would not be quite so astronomical. Still, it's a pretty unusual feat.
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Staying with the bat and ball, but this time in Major League Baseball, the Texas Ranger pitching staff had its shut-out inning streak snapped at 33 innings. According to the linked ESPN.com article, "Texas pitchers had posted three shutouts in a row and the scoreless streak was the second-longest in franchise history."
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Finally, in NBA playoff action, the Cleveland Cavaliers unleashed an early burst en route to taking Game 3 of their series from the Boston Celtics. As seen in this play-by-play sheet, Boston opened the game with a 4-0 lead. Next thing everybody knew, Cleveland was ahead 27-8 -- the result of a 27-4 Cavalier run!
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