ESPN.com has published the television schedule ( link ) for the Women's College World Series, which begins Thursday.

Only two games today, both decisive third games to send a team to the Women's College World Series. Arizona State takes 1-0 lead over Northwestern on Alynah Torres homer ( video ) to lead off bottom of first... Bottom 3: Single drives in ASU's second run ( video ), before Emily Cazares unloads for three-run shot ( video ), making it 5-0 Sun Devils... Northwestern has rallied in the two previous games, however, so don't count out the Wildcats... No sooner do I say that than Northwestern leads off top of fourth with two singles, then scores both runners when next hitter grounds to short and throw to second to get force goes into right field... 5-2 ASU, with NU having a runner at first with no outs... K for first out... Single to right puts Wildcat runners on the corners with one out... Walk to load bases... Deep single to left-center gap drives in two, pulling Northwestern within 5-4, Cats now with runners on first and second with one out... ASU pitching change... Walk to rel...

Three Big 12 teams have now qualified for the Women's College World Series -- Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Texas... The SEC, which had 12 teams in the tournament, has only one hope left, namely Florida, which forced a Game 3 vs. Virginia Tech tomorrow...  UCLA with an early threat against Duke with runners on the corners and none out in the top of the second... Sac-fly makes it 1-0 Bruins... Nothing further for UCLA in the second... Maya Brady sends one off the scoreboard in left to make it 2-0 Bruins, top four... Caroline Jacobsen two-run shot ( video ) ties it for Duke, 2-2, in bottom of fourth... Single and steal gives UCLA runner on second with none out, top five... Ground-out and K keep Bruin runner on second, now two outs... Delanie Wisz doubles in go-ahead run, 3-2 UCLA... Brady up... Singles to shallow right, Wisz out at plate (pending replay, perhaps of whether tag was made or catcher obstruction)... Call of "out" confirmed... Bottom 6: Walk and misplayed bunt ...

Below are my comments on the games. At the very bottom is a chart, showing the winners of all games in this year's super-regionals... Oklahoma State finishes off Clemson 5-1 to advance to Women's College World Series... Texas defeats Arkansas 3-1 to force decisive Game 3 on Saturday... UCLA with one run in the fifth and two in the sixth to overcome early two-run deficit and beat Duke 3-2 in series opener... Oregon State with three-run second inning (including this Madison Simon  two-run homer ) en route to 3-1 win at Stanford in series opener... Northwestern with a come-from-behind win at Arizona State. Trailing 3-0, the Wildcats get a two-run homer in the top of the sixth and a solo-shot in the seventh to tie the game 3-3, before winning in 11 innings. Highlights of the game are available here . Oklahoma up 8-0 over Central Florida after three... That's the final score via run-rule (five innings). Florida at Virginia Tech also underway (1:00 pm Central)... Emma Ritter solo...

This year's super-regionals get underway tonight with two match-ups, unseeded Texas at No. 4 Arkansas (6:00 pm Central) and No. 10 Clemson at No. 7 Oklahoma State (8:30 Central). This year's five unseeded teams are the most since 2012, when there also were five. As usual, I'll have my chart to track all of the games, plus my comments on the action. Clemson and Oklahoma State scoreless, with Cowgirls batting in the bottom of the second... No scoring until bottom of fifth, when one-out single with runners on second and third gives Oklahoma State 2-0 lead ( video )... That's your final. Cowgirls up 1-0 in the series... Two-run error puts Arkansas up 3-0 in bottom of fifth. With Razorbacks leading 1-0, bases loaded, and one out, Texas throws home on infield grounder, but throw gets away, allowing two to score. Arkansas now with runners on second and third... 7-1 is your final. Hogs up 1-0 in the series... Match-Up (Seeds) Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 ...

Yesterday, we had a few national seeds lose (Virginia Tech, Alabama, and Missouri). They, and all other one-loss teams, will have a chance to come back through the losers' bracket and then try to beat the winners' bracket winner (which has no losses) twice to win the regional and advance to the super-regionals next week. Below is a chart of how many losses each team has in each region, who has been eliminated (i.e., two losses), and who will be moving on (based on this page from the NCAA website). Teams advancing to the super-regionals shown in red in the chart, with unseeded teams advancing shown in italics... In today's final game -- the Texas-Washington winner-take-all rematch -- the Horns break through with a two-out, two-run double by Bella Dayton ( video ) in the top of the fifth to lead 2-0... Huskies with runners on first and second with one out in their half of the fifth... Double-play (grounder to 3B-person who steps on bag and fires to first) ends U-Dub threat ...

The big story of the day is the success of Pac 12 teams, "chalk" wins for UCLA and ASU, upsets for Stanford and Arizona.  No. 1 Oklahoma has defeated Texas A&M, but by a much closer margin than many would have expected. OU lead 3-0 after four innings, but the Aggies scored two in the top of the sixth. There was no further scoring, so the final was 3-2 Sooners ( box score ). No. 2 Florida State shuts out South Florida, 8-0 ( box score ). No. 3 Virginia Tech leading Kentucky, 4-1, as Hokies bat in bottom of sixth ( gametracker )... Wildcats rally for four runs (so far) in top of seventh -- highlighted by Renee Abernathy three-run shot ( video ) -- to take 5-4 lead... Key replay pending with two out in bottom of seventh... UK 1B-person found to have stepped on bag before batter got there on strange play, for final out... Kentucky wins... Oregon and No. 4 Arkansas are scoreless as the Ducks bat in the top of the sixth ( gametracker ). Razorbacks break through with six run...

I'm a little late this year with my annual geospatial maps, showing where teams are from and where they are being sent for the NCAA regionals. I experimented with different formats until I found one that I liked. As you'll see, many regionals feature three teams that are geographically near each other plus one team from a greater distance. In all cases, the one nationally seeded team within a region (shown with a seed number in parentheses) will host. Each region is depicted in the school colors of the host school. Also, to minimize clutter, I show no more than four regions per map. Play begins tomorrow.  One interesting statistic before we begin: Four conferences account for 33 teams -- more than half -- of the 64-team field. There are 12 SEC teams, eight Pac-12 teams (out of nine softball-playing schools), seven Big 10 [abbreviated B1G] teams, and six ACC teams. The first map displays the regionals hosted by the top four seeded teams (you can click on the graphics to enlarge ...

We've got a good one going in the Big 12 tournament final, with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State tied 2-2 in the top of the fourth... The Cowgirls have the bases loaded with two out... Force-out at second ends the OSU threat... Cowgirls take 3-2 lead in top of fifth with an unusual run. After leadoff single and advancement to second on throwing error, second OSU batter bunts for base-hit, but then takes off for second to induce a run-down, while baserunner scores from second ( video )... Sooners coming up in bottom of fifth...One-out homer by Jocelyn Alo ties it 3-3... Cowgirls coming up in top of sixth... OSU with runner on first, one out... Great OU catch in right field by Rylie Boone likely saves a run ( video ), but throw to double-up runner from first goes awry, so inning continues... Ground-out ends threat... Nothing for OU either in the sixth. Still 3-3 going to seventh... Cowgirls with some hard-hit balls in the top of the seventh, but no runs... Leadoff bunt single for Boone i...

This past weekend in Tempe, Arizona State took two of three from UCLA, giving the Sun Devils (18-3 in conference) a two-game lead in the Pac 12 standings over the second-place Bruins (16-5). Each team has three games left, ASU at Washington and UCLA at home vs. Cal (both series start Thursday). After routs in the first two games of the UCLA-ASU series -- 6-1 Sun Devils in the opener and 9-3 Bruins in Game 2 -- the finale was a close contest. UCLA led 3-0 after five and one-half innings. However, ASU scored three runs in the sixth on this two-out bases-clearing double by Bella Loomis ( video ) and added a walk-off three-run homer by Emily Cazares in the seventh ( video ) for a 6-3 victory.  UCLA's reaction (borrowing from the television show " The Good Place ") must have been "What the fork???!!!"

No. 1 Oklahoma swept No. 7 Oklahoma State this weekend to finish the regular season with an overall record of 48-1 (17-1 in conference). After winning handily in the first two games of the series (by scores of 7-1 and 6-0), the Sooners faced more of a challenge in Game 3 . OU trailed 2-1 after four and one-half innings, before getting a grand-slam homer from Jocelyn Alo ( video ). The Cowgirls scored one in the top of the sixth to close within 5-3 and there was no further scoring. If Oklahoma can go undefeated in next week's conference tournament and then all the way through the NCAA tournament, it will set the record for fewest losses en route to a Women's College World Series title. The 1992 UCLA team holds the record at 54-2.