This was originally scheduled to post yesterday, but because of particular circumstances, it’s going up now. So here it is ...

“The Wire” or college softball? Hmmmm.

Tough choice, but instead of watching some more of HBO’s fantastic cops-and-drug-dealers drama, I’ve decided to hammer out a quick blog post about Virginia Tech softball. Coach Scot Thomas was good enough to call me back on short notice earlier today, so I’ll expand upon some of the Angela Tincher stuff that was in this space earlier and is set to appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

Thomas is in a tough spot. Tincher is the best pitcher in school history. (That’s Thomas talking, not me. And he should know, because he helped launch the program in 1995.) Thomas certainly wants Tincher to make the Olympic squad, but that would mean she’d miss next season, her senior year. (She’d take a redshirt year in this case.)

“I don’t know that anybody would be prepared to lose your top pitcher like that,“ he said.

That said, it’s a tall order for Tincher to make the Olympic team—which would be a first for a Tech player. Tincher tried out for, but did not make, the 18-player national squad that trained together over the summer.

Thomas said that team carried five pitchers: Monica Abbott (Tennessee), Cat Osterman (Texas), Alicia Hollowell (Arizona), Jennie Ritter (Michigan) and Jennie Finch (Arizona). And no, folks, I will not aim low in this space and try to appeal to the young-male demographic by posting sultry pictures of Finch. Moreover, American softball legend Lisa Fernandez, 36, will rejoin the team this fall.

The Olympic team will likely carry four pitchers. And we just rattled off six who will be tough for Tincher to beat. Seems she has a better shot at making the 18-player Olympic squad as one of its three alternates, rather than the 15-player regular Olympic squad.

If you’ve gotten this far, here’s a reward ...

Blog pal Wright Thompson recently wrote this fantastic piece on China, which will host next summer’s Olympics. (And we’ve got to give The World-Wide Leader In Self Promotion—ESPN, not Thompson—credit where credit is due on this one, gang: the layouts of those E-ticket stories on ESPN.com are usually very well done.)