Only two undecided series left on the "Green Monster" board: Mizzou-James Madison (Game 3 at 11:00 am Central) and Oklahoma State-Texas (Game 3 at 3:00 pm Central). Comments and reactions on these two games appear below the board...   Match-Up Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 1 Oklahoma vs. 16 Washington Oklahoma Oklahoma --- 2 UCLA vs. Virginia Tech^ VT UCLA UCLA 3 Alabama vs. 14 Kentucky Alabama Alabama --- 4 Florida vs. Georgia Georgia Georgia --- 5 Oklahoma St. vs. 12 Texas OSU Texas OSU 6 Arkansas vs. 11 Arizona Arizona Arizona --- 7 LSU vs. 10 Florida St.^ FSU FSU --- 8 Missouri vs. James Madison J. Madison Mizzou J. Madison ^Series started on Thursday, all others on Friday. Oklahoma State-Texas Down to our final super-regional game. Oklahoma State had won first five meetings over Texas this season (3-0 in conference play, 1-0 in Big 12 t...

Seven super-regional series are active today (Florida State having already qualified for the Women's College World Series), as shown below on the "Green Monster" board. Comments and reactions for other series appear below the board... Match-Up Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 1 Oklahoma vs. 16 Washington Oklahoma Oklahoma --- 2 UCLA vs. Virginia Tech^ VT UCLA UCLA 3 Alabama vs. 14 Kentucky Alabama Alabama --- 4 Florida vs. Georgia Georgia Georgia --- 5 Oklahoma St. vs. 12 Texas OSU Texas ??? 6 Arkansas vs. 11 Arizona Arizona Arizona --- 7 LSU vs. 10 Florida St.^ FSU FSU --- 8 Missouri vs. James Madison J. Madison Mizzou ??? ^Series started on Thursday, all others on Friday. UCLA-Virginia Tech Rachel Garcia back in the circle for UCLA in this deciding game, after being given Game 2 off... VT gets a two-out single in the top of the first, but ...

All eight super-regional series are active today, as shown on the "Green Monster" board (below). Virginia Tech and Florida State, respectively, look to close out UCLA and LSU. The No. 2-seeded Bruins struggled a week ago with Fresno State and Minnesota, so whereas UCLA's lackluster performance against the Hokies last night may not be totally shocking, it would still be a surprise to see the Bruins eliminated this early... Comments and reactions for other series appear below the board... Match-Up Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 1 Oklahoma vs. 16 Washington Oklahoma --- --- 2 UCLA vs. Virginia Tech^ VT UCLA --- 3 Alabama vs. 14 Kentucky Alabama --- --- 4 Florida vs. Georgia Georgia --- --- 5 Oklahoma St. vs. 12 Texas OSU --- --- 6 Arkansas vs. 11 Arizona Arizona --- --- 7 LSU vs. 10 Florida St.^ FSU FSU --- 8 Missouri vs. James Madison J. Madison --- ...

Two of the eight super-regional match-ups -- LSU vs. Florida State and UCLA vs. Virginia Tech -- open up tonight, with the rest beginning on Friday. I'll be here to follow the action, including the results board (below). UCLA-Virginia Tech Top 1: Two-out Kelsey Bennett triple to wall in right-center, just beyond two converging UCLA outfielders, drives in a pair, 2-0 Hokies... K ends the threat... VT adds two more in top of fourth, making it 4-0, still batting with runners on second and third and two out... Nice catch of a blooper in short left-field saves a run for UCLA... Runners at the corners for VT with none out in the top of the fifth... If game gets really out of hand, UCLA may want to remove pitcher Rachel Garcia and conserve her for later in the series... Single makes it 5-0... Here comes the hook... 7-2 Virginia Tech is your final... Hokies lead series, one game to none... Florida State-LSU Seminoles get first run of game in top of the sixth on a sacrifice fly... LSU with ...

Today, we determine the 15 teams that will be joining Virginia Tech in the super-regionals (the Hokies' regional tournament started a day earlier than the rest). As listed below, each regional features an undefeated team that needs only one win to advance vs. a one-loss team that will need to beat the undefeated team twice. In other words, a regional isn't over until every team but one has two losses. No. 1 Oklahoma (needs one win) vs. Wichita State (needs two) OU leads 11-5, batting in the top of the fourth... The Shockers had temporarily shocked the Sooners with four runs in the bottom of the first, but OU doubled that with an eight-run second... OU lead now up to 18-7, top seventh... Final score, sending Sooners to supers , is 24-7... No. 2 UCLA (needs one win) vs. Minnesota (needs two) Opening game scoreless, heading into bottom (Gophers) half of second inning... Megan Faraimo pitching for UCLA, rather than Rachel Garcia, who pitched eight innings yesterday vs. Fresno State...

Here are my real-time summaries and reactions to the games... WB = Winners' bracket, meaning that both teams entered with 1-0 records... LB = Losers' bracket, meaning that one or both teams entered with a loss... LSU regional WB: LSU leading ULL 8-2, bottom fourth... Tigers take it, 10-3... LB: McNeese State sends George Washington home, ULL does same to McNeese State... Oklahoma regional WB: Wichita State takes early 1-0 lead over OU, as catcher Madison Perrigan (nickname Butters)  socks a homer ... Perrigan's OU counterpart behind the plate, Lynnsie Elam, homers in the bottom of the second to tie it, 1-1... Sooners explode for a six-spot in the bottom of the fifth, highlighted by Elam's second homer of the day. Now 7-2 OU... Shockers put up three in top of sixth, but get no more... Final is 7-5 OU... LB: Texas A&M eliminates Morgan State, then is bounced by Wichita State... Missouri regional WB: Mizzou pitcher Laurin Krings comes within one out of a no-hitter... ...

I love this time of year. Thanks to the ESPN Family of Networks (including the SEC Network), I have four Friday-afternoon games at my fingertips at the moment: Florida-South Florida, Auburn-UCF, Liberty-James Madison, and Arkansas-Manhattan... And as these games end, newer ones replace them on the air!... Below are my real-time summaries and reactions to many of the games, edited later to group them by regionals... Washington regional Seattle University down to its final three outs, trailing Michigan 2-0, top seven, in the Washington regional. Wolverines' pitcher Meghan Beaubien is working a no-hitter... Beaubien one strike away... Swing and a miss, no-hitter for Beaubien, the seventh of her career (per ESPN announcers)... Washington shuts out Portland State, 3-0, in the nightcap at this venue... UCLA regional Fresno State puts up the game's first two runs in the top of the sixth against Minnesota in the L.A. regional... Bulldogs close it out, 3-0... UCLA with an 8-0, run-rule...

For the first time since 2019 (due to the spring 2020 COVID-19 college-sports cancellations), the geospatial maps are back! As readers of this site will know, each year I plot the locations of teams that get sent to play in the 16 NCAA women's softball regionals . These maps show which regionals are geographically compact (i.e., all four teams being from the same state or two neighboring states) and which send teams all the way across the country to play. With COVID safety standards still in place to some extent, I thought the regionals might be more compact than usual to minimize travel. However, this does not appear to be the case.  Besides geography, this posting also discusses the substance of the national seedings and regional placements. The most controversial seeding is almost certainly the No. 16 slot given to the University of Washington, as the Huskies were a Top 5 team in the national polls and finished second in the tough Pac 12 conference. This Seattle Times column ...

 Conference tournaments and season-ending regular-season series (for leagues that don't have tournaments) headline the final weekend of play, leading into Sunday night's Selection Sunday show. In one SEC semifinal game, the seventh-place Tennessee squad is down to its final at-bats in the top of the seventh, trailing third-place Alabama, 6-5. A two-run blast by Bama catcher Bailey Hemphill in the bottom of the sixth is the difference so far... Vols retired uneventfully in the seventh... Bama The winner faces first-place Florida in Saturday night's championship game... In the non-tournament Pac 12, Game 3 of this weekend's four-game UCLA at Arizona series (also the nightcap of a Friday doubleheader) will be airing soon on ESPN-U (although the game has started out on "regular" ESPN)... The Bruins took Thursday's series opener 8-0 (run rule) and Friday's doubleheader opener, 6-2... UCLA's win in Friday's opener  tops the standings  clinches the...

The Big 12 regular-season title is on the line this weekend , as the nation's No. 1 team, Oklahoma (40-1, 14-0), travels to Stillwater to take on No. 7 Oklahoma State (39-6, 14-1). I'll chime in with score updates and other observations. UPDATE 1: Cowgirls take Friday's series opener , 6-4. The Sooners had won an amazing 57 straight Big 12 regular-season games before this loss. UPDATE 2: Sooners go up 2-0 in top of third  on Saturday, but can't convert second and third with one out into any more runs. Airing on ESPN... Top 5: OU's Lynnsie Elam with a bases-loaded, two-out single to make it 4-0. No further damage, going to OSU half of the fifth... An errant Sooner throw to first base on a Cowgirl bunt scores runner from first and lands batter on third base. Sac fly cuts OSU deficit to 4-2... Nicole Mendes solo shot makes it 5-2 Sooners, top 6... Cowgirls down to their final three outs, trailing 6-2... Still a ways to go, but OSU has combined a lead-off homer, a hit-...