NiJaree Canady, whose sub-1.00 ERA helped lead Stanford to the Women's College World Series in both her years with the Cardinal, announced on July 24 that she is transferring to Texas Tech. I've lived in Lubbock for 27 years and can say that the town has been improving with a greater selection of restaurants and shops, and a new downtown performing arts center. Likewise, nice new facilities have been dotting the Texas Tech campus . Still, it seems unlikely that Canady would have become a Red Raider without the $1 million annual Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deal for her, made possible by the donation of a Texas Tech alumni couple. So stunning an event is this, even in the ever-changing world of collegiate athletics, that the New York Times  even ran a behind-the-scenes story on Canady's path to Texas Tech. I look forward to being in the stands to watch Canady pitch next spring, an opportunity I never expected to have.

Stanford pitching ace NiJaree Canady has reportedly entered the transfer portal ( link ), having completed two seasons in the circle for the Cardinal. Stanford has made the WCWS in both of Canady's seasons on the team. Another school hit hard by the transfer portal is the University of Washington, with an exodus of eight Huskies . This list of the top ten players in the portal includes four from UW. Today is the final day of the 30-day window for players to enter the portal.

Jayda Coleman, Tiare Jennings, Kinzie Hansen, Rylie Boone , and Nicole May. ESPN.com refers to them as Oklahoma's "core" seniors in a nice  retrospective  profile the day after the Sooners won their fourth Women's College World Series in a row and eighth in program history.* These five were not the only seniors on the team, but are distinguished by playing their entire college careers with OU. Other key seniors, such as Kelly Maxwell and Alyssa Brito, were transfers from other schools. The hitters among the core five -- Coleman, Jennings, Hansen, and Boone -- all put up gaudy offensive statistics and were the foundation that gave OU, in ESPN's apt characterization, "a lineup that had no easy outs." May, though not serving as the Sooners' pitching ace (think Jordy Bahl or Maxwell over the years), appeared in 106 games and compiled a 2.22 ERA. Whether OU's title streak ends anytime soon is anybody's guess. Even with Oklahoma's proven abilit...

We likely are three outs away from the end of the college softball season, with Texas batting in the top of the seventh, trailing Oklahoma 8-4... Pop to shallow left for first out... K for second out... Ground-out to third gives Sooners their fourth straight WCWS national title... Whereas the Longhorns scored single runs tonight in the second, third, fourth, and sixth innings, OU was coming up with multiple-run innings in the second (2 runs), fourth (3), and sixth (3). Cydney Sanders's bases-clearing double with three aboard in the fourth is but one example of the Sooners' big plays, in this case converting a 3-2 UT lead into a 5-3 OU advantage.  The Sooners showed some vulnerability this season, including an elimination game in the WCWS semifinals in which OU trailed Florida 5-2 . In the championship round, however, Oklahoma raised its game to a new level, which Texas couldn't come close to matching.

Oklahoma off to a 5-1 lead, as Texas bats in B3. Longhorns with runners on first and second with two out and star hitter Reese Atwood at the plate... Atwood grounds right back to OU pitcher Kelly Maxwell, who tosses to first for the third out... UT starter Teagan Kavan, who pitched so well against Stanford in the semifinals, lasted only 2 2/3 innings tonight, allowing all five Oklahoma runs... 8-3 OU is your final...

Oklahoma has kept its quest for a fourth straight WCWS title alive with a 6-5 eight-inning win over Florida to advance to the championship round. The Sooners will take on Texas in a two-out-of-three series beginning Wednesday night. Florida held a 5-2 lead after three innings and looked well on its way to beating OU for the second straight day, which would have eliminated the Sooners and taken the Gators to the final round. However, UF scored no further runs, whereas Oklahoma chipped away with two in the fourth, one in the sixth, and one in the eighth. The final run came via Jayda Coleman's opposite-field walk-off home run to lead off the bottom of the eighth.  Sooner starter Kelly Maxwell went the distance, allowing only four hits. Three of those hits were home runs within the first three innings; the only other Gator hit was an infield single in the top of the sixth. Maxwell also walked five and struck out eight. Florida starter Keagan Rothrock also went the distance, allowing 1...

Texas and Stanford are scoreless B3 (with the Cardinal as the home team), as the Longhorns -- with no losses in the WCWS -- try to advance directly to the championship round. The one-loss Cardinal would need to beat Texas tonight and tomorrow to make the finals... UT center-fielder Kayden Henry with a great catch on Stanford's leadoff hitter. Nothing for the Cardinal in B3... Longhorns' Katie Stewart with a one-out double to the wall in right-center T4... Two-out HBP gives Texas two runners on base... NiJaree Canady strikes out UT hitter to end the threat... T6, still scoreless in this pitcher's duel between Canady and UT's Teagan Kavan... One-out single for Longhorns' Reese Atwood... K for second out... UT pinch-runner Adayah Wallace steals second and advances to third on overthrow into center-field...  Grounder to second ends the threat... B6, Stanford comes up, having gotten only one hit so far (to UT's four)... Cardinal goes quietly, the third out coming on...

Two elimination games on the slate today. UCLA up on Stanford 1-0 T2 on an opposite-field solo-shot by Megan Grant... Grant had a great freshman season at the plate a year ago, but came down a notch this year. The Bruins will need everything they can offensively to possibly come back and win the WCWS... T3, UCLA looking to expand its lead with runners at the corners (after singles by Janelle Meono and Jadelyn Allchin) and two out... Ground-out ends threat... B3, Taryn Kern with a one-out double to the wall in left-center for Stanford to drive in Emily Jones, who had reached on an infield single. All-square at 1-1. UCLA pitching change, with Taylor Tinsley replacing Kaitlyn Terry... After second out recorded, Ava Gall laces a hard line single to right , driving in Kern for 2-1 Cardinal lead... Ground-out ends threat... UCLA down 1-2-3 in T4... B5, Stanford with two straight bunt singles to start off... The power-hitting Kern at the plate... Kern fouling off pitches with a 3-2 count.....

All winners' bracket action today, with Oklahoma taking on UCLA in the opener and Texas vs. Florida in the nightcap... Texas with a B1 five-spot vs. Florida, culminating in this three-run clout by Alyssa Washington... Longhorns add another five runs in the fourth for a 10-0 run-rule victory in five innings. Gators get only one hit... Bruins and Sooners, showing on ABC television, are scoreless, with OU batting in the bottom of the second... Oklahoma opened B1 with a walk and a single, and later got a walk to load the bases, but couldn't score... Kelly Maxwell in the circle for Oklahoma, Kaitlyn Terry for UCLA... T3, HBP and walk give Bruins a no-out threat... K for first out... Runners later advance to second and third, but don't score... B3, OU's Tiare Jennings leads off with a homer to straightaway center , just over the fence... T4, one-out single for Bruins, their first hit of the afternoon... Nothing comes of it... Four innings complete, still 1-0 Sooners... T5, l...

Friday's docket consists of two elimination games.  The first team to be heading home is Duke, a 2-1 loser to Alabama. This solo-shot by the Crimson Tide's Marlie Giles in T6 broke a 1-1 tie and ended up being the difference. Oklahoma State and Stanford next... Cardinal up 1-0 T2, as Ava Gall gets all ball , and blasts it to right... Now 4-0 Stanford after four complete innings, as the Cardinal offense, anemic for much of the season, has gotten five hits so far (including another home run, this by Kaitlyn Lim ) and driven Cowgirl ace Lexi Kilfoyl out of the circle after 3 2/3 innings... T5, Stanford with four singles and two runs so far off of OSU reliever Ivy Rosenberry, making it 6-0. Cardinal currently with runners on second and third with two outs... 8-0 Stanford is your final... Oklahoma State, known for its power hitting, goes home not only without a win in this year's WCWS, but also without scoring a run (having lost its opener to Florida, 1-0)...

Florida takes the nightcap with a 1-0 win over Oklahoma State... Katie Kistler's B5 solo-shot down the right-field line, almost to the refreshment stand behind the fence ( video ) is all the Gators need... Teagan Kavan's one-hitter led Texas to a 4-0 victory over Stanford... Oklahoma briefly fell behind Duke 1-0 in the second inning, but the Sooners roared back with 4 in the third inning, 3 in the fourth, and 2 in the sixth for a 9-1 run-rule victory ... This year's Women's College World Series will have a late start. The opening game between Alabama and UCLA, scheduled for 11:00 am Central, is currently in a rain delay... It has just been announced that the game will start at 12:36 Central... Alabama-UCLA underway... Tide with a one-out infield single in T1, on grounder up the middle (possibly deflected by pitcher) that did not allow middle infielders enough time to get the batter at first... Next two Bama batters go quietly... B1, Bruins get runner to second with one...

ESPN.com has an amazing preview of the 2024 Women's College World Series ( link ). The article contains in-depth analyses of all eight teams, plus every kind of statistical graphic you can imagine. One set of statistics stood out to me: Oklahoma's offensive output this year is almost identical to what it was last year, but the Sooners' pitching has come down a notch since last year. For example, OU has allowed 1.8 runs per game this season compared to 1.0 a year ago, and has struck out 23.4% of opposing batters this year as opposed to 31.3% last year.

A lot of softball today, as five of the eight super-regional series are going to a decisive Game 3.,, The SEC conceivably could send five teams to the Women's College World Series. One is guaranteed (the Tennessee-Alabama winner), with Texas A&M, Florida, Missouri, and LSU potentially making it also. The Big 12 could send up to four with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State already having qualified and Texas and Baylor playing today...  [ Update: The Big 12 will have three teams in the WCWS in Texas, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State; the Pac-12 (UCLA, Stanford) and SEC (Florida, Alabama) will each have two; and Duke will represent the ACC.] Stanford-LSU about to get started... Stanford gets an 8-0, six-inning run-rule win, punctuated by this walk-off homer ... Texas-Texas A&M getting underway... T1, the Aggies' Trinity Cannon continues her slugging ways, this time with a double that drives in the game's first run... B2, with one out and runner on first, Longhorns' Katie St...

Two games have been completed on Saturday afternoon and, in both cases, the team needing a win to survive got one. Baylor beat Florida, 5-2, and Missouri defeated Duke, 3-1, forcing decisive Game-3 matchups on Sunday... For Baylor, Shaylon Govan's three-run blast in the bottom of the first ( video ) produced more runs than Florida scored the entire game (2), but the Bears added single runs in the second and sixth for some cushion... Mizzou scored all three of its runs in T4, based on three consecutive singles and a Duke throwing error on the third single that allowed not only the runner from second but also the runner from first to score and enabled the batter to go all the way to third (from which she scored on a later at-bat)...  Stanford shuts out LSU 3-0 to force a deciding game tomorrow. The Cardinal's NiJaree Canady rebounds from her poor outing Friday night to record a gem (7.0 innings pitched, 9 strikeouts, allowing only 2 hits and 3 walks). Oklahoma State opens up T1 ...

All eight super-regional series are in action today (see table below). Oklahoma and UCLA will be looking to close out their respective series after each taking a 1-0 lead last night. Oklahoma leading Florida State 4-2, as Seminoles down to their final at-bats B7... Two down... Game over, sending Sooners to Women's College World Series. UCLA leading Georgia 1-0 T1. After scoring their run, Bruins had bases loaded with one out but couldn't pad their lead... Bulldogs with runners on first and second with one out in B1... With two out, UGA singles to right-center with ball just eluding Bruin 2B-person, tying game 1-1. No further scoring in the inning... UCLA back up, 2-1, T2 on some small ball (single, runner bunted to second, single)... Bruin lead up to 4-1 on Sharlize Palacios two-run dinger in T4... Now 5-1 UCLA T5... Your final is 6-1, as the Bruins return to the WCWS. LSU leads Stanford 3-1 after one complete... Now 6-1 Tigers in T5 after Ali Newland three-run blast... Maci B...

The 2024 super-regionals get underway tonight, with two series: Oklahoma-Florida State and UCLA-Georgia ( full timetable ). The winner of each two-out-of-three series advances to the Women's College World Series. I'll update the results in the table below and comment on the games over the weekend... UCLA-Georgia:  Maya Brady with leadoff homer for the Bruins B1, making it 1-0 UCLA ( video )... Brady adds another home run, plus a double , as the Bruins beat the Bulldogs 8-0 via run-rule (six innings). Oklahoma-Florida State: Tiare Jennings gives OU 1-0 lead B1 with a home run ( video )... After Alynah Torres doubles in a run B2 to make it 2-0 Sooners, FSU's Devyn Flaherty singles in two T3 to tie the game, 2-2... Alyssa Brito leads off B3 with solo shot to give OU back the lead, 3-2... Seminole throwing error on bunt with OU runners on first and second leads to another Sooner run, now 4-2, B3... Now 5-2 Oklahoma... Sooners' lead up to 10-3 B5... Final score is 11-3 OU v...

One of the most dramatic moments of this weekend's regional play occurred in Sunday's second game between Baylor and No. 13 seed Louisiana-Lafayette. The Bears had shut out the Ragin' Cajuns 8-0 on Saturday, but ULL returned the favor (and then some) with a 13-0 blanking of Baylor in Sunday's early game. That necessitated an additional, winner-take-all, game between the teams to advance to the super-regionals.  In this final game, Baylor held a 4-3 lead as ULL came up to bat in the bottom of the seventh. With two outs, the Ragin' Cajuns drew a walk. This created a situation known as a " Golden Pitch ," where on any of the upcoming pitches, either team conceivably could win the regional. If ULL could hit a homer on the next pitch, it would win the game 5-4 and thus the regional. However, if Baylor could record an out on the next pitch, it would win the game 4-3 and the regional.* Other scenarios (e.g., a ULL walk or hit other than a home run) would keep the...

SATURDAY NIGHT The surprise elimination game between No. 7 seed Missouri and Washington (resulting from both teams losing to Nebraska-Omaha) is now underway. Mizzou (as the home team in this game) leads 1-0 in the top of the third... Jenna Laird's solo shot increases the Tigers' lead to 2-0, B3... T5: Back-to-back two-out singles (the second one fairly deep) give the Huskies their first run, cutting deficit to 2-1... Fly out to right ends threat... B5 Mizzou rally increases its lead to 4-1... Huskies down to their final three outs as they bat in the top of the seventh... A quick 1-2-3 half-inning sends U-Dub back to Seattle... No. 13 Louisiana-Lafayette, having lost earlier today to Baylor, is in a struggle to stay alive, tied 1-1 with Princeton, who is batting in the bottom of the seventh... A triple and a sac-fly put ULL ahead 2-1 in the top of the eighth and Princeton goes quietly in the bottom half... Ragin' Cajuns survive... No. 12 Arkansas and Villanova are only in th...

With the NCAA women's softball brackets being announced last Sunday night, I'm back once again with my annual geospatial maps of the 64 teams' assignments to the 16 four-team regional sites. Each site is hosted by one of the 16 nationally seeded teams, with three outside teams coming in. These are depicted in the maps below (each map shows only a few different regionals, to reduce clutter). Starting times for all games are available by clicking here and then scrolling down when the new page comes up. This year's No. 1 seed is Texas, which will have three northern teams (Northwestern, St. Francis [Pennsylvania], and Siena [New York]) coming to Austin. This is the Longhorn program's first time ever as the national top seed. No. 2 is three-time defending Women's College World Series winner Oklahoma, also with three northern teams coming in (Oregon, Cleveland State, and Boston University). The Longhorns (23-4 in conference) edged out the Sooners (22-5) for the Bi...

Oklahoma State took two-of-three from Bedlam rival Oklahoma in Norman this weekend to close out the regular season. It was OSU's first series win at OU since 1993 ! The Cowgirls won the first two games of the series by scores of 6-3 and 6-2 , respectively, before the Sooners salvaged the finale, 8-2 . Jilyen Poullard, Karli Godwin, and Micaela Wark swatted homers for OSU in Friday's series-opener, with Poullard and Wark repeating as home-run hitters on Saturday. Caroline Wang and Claire Timm also homered for the Cowgirls in Game 2. OU's series loss allowed Texas to squeeze by the Sooners for the Big 12 regular-season title (UT finishing 23-4, OU 22-5, and OSU 21-6). --- Tennessee won its second straight SEC regular-season title this weekend, with the Vols (19-5) sweeping Kentucky .   ... Per the SEC Network/ESPN baseball/softball show "Rally Cap," Alabama's 10-14 conference record marked the first time the Crimson Tide has ever had a losing conference recor...

No. 12 UCLA, which had some struggles early in the season, appears to be rounding into top form, as evidenced in a  three-game Pac-12 sweep at No. 5 Stanford this past weekend. With the wins, the Bruins now hold first place in the conference at 12-3 (.800), with the Cardinal second at 13-5 (.722). Scores were 1-0 (9 innings), 9-3, and 2-0.  Friday's opener featured a battle of sophomores in the circle, with UCLA's Taylor Tinsley outdueling Stanford's NiJaree Canady. Tinsley struck out a personal season-high 15 batters, while allowing only five baserunners (five hits, no walks). Canady struck out 12, while allowing eight hits and one free pass.  The game's only run came on a controversial play in the ninth, with a Bruin runner initially being called out at the plate, but the call being overturned due to catcher obstruction (i.e., blocking the plate without the ball). Following is a frozen screenshot of a video on Twitter/X. You can watch the full video of the play  ...

After tying its series with No. 1 Oklahoma at one game apiece in dramatic fashion last night, No. 5 Texas beat OU again this afternoon to claim the series, two games to one. Both Longhorn wins were by a 2-1 score, after the Sooners had taken the opener, 5-2. According to this article , "The series loss in the Red River Rivalry was OU’s first conference series defeat since losing to Missouri in 2011, and the first series the Sooners dropped to Texas since 2009." The key hit of today's game was a two-run blast by UT's Katie Stewart in the bottom of the fourth to make it 2-1 ( video ). In the top of the seventh, after the first two Sooners were retired, there was a whisper of OU's patented two-out magic, with Tiare Jennings stroking a single up the middle. However, Alyssa Brito popped up to short. Two other series this weekend featured Top 10 matchups. No. 4 Tennessee (ESPN/USA Softball poll) beat No. 3 Georgia 3-1 this afternoon to win two of three over the Bulldo...

No. 1 Oklahoma, which rarely loses (one loss all of last season and one loss so far this season), will now be batting in the top of the seventh, trailing No. 5 Texas, 2-1, on ESPN. It looked like the Longhorns had scored a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth to make it 4-1 but, as described below, a Texas baserunning error negated the two runs. Longhorns' center-fielder Kayden Henry makes an amazing catch ( video ), rushing in on a hard, but rapidly sinking, liner for the first out of the seventh inning... Ground-out to third for second out... 0-2 count on Kinzie Hansen... Hansen singles up the middle on 1-2 count... Pinch-runner to first... Rylie Boone up... Boone drives one over the center-fielder's head, giving Sooners a chance to score the tying run... Strong throw and relay to plate allow catcher to tag OU runner out ( video )... Oklahoma claims obstruction by catcher, but umps uphold original call of "out," ending the game. What a dramatic finish, ...

The Pacific 12's motto " Conference of Champions " has applied particularly well to softball. Member schools have captured 24 (UCLA 12, Arizona 8, ASU 2, Cal 1, Washington 1) of the 40 NCAA titles awarded in the sport.  However, the 2024 Pac 12 season, which begins this weekend, will be the last.* UCLA, Washington, Oregon, and (non-softball) USC will be leaving for the Big Ten; Arizona, ASU, Utah, and (non-softball) Colorado will head to the Big 12; and Stanford and Cal will join the Atlantic Coast Conference. Oregon State will be the only remaining softball school, as Washington State does not field a team in the sport. As shown in the following graph, the three teams going to the Big Ten (UCLA, Washington, and Oregon) were consistently among the best in the Pac 12 over the past decade, with the exception of a Duck downturn when Coach Mike White moved to the University of Texas (the grey bar denotes the cancelled COVID-19 season in 2020). Stanford and Utah have been r...

Oklahoma's enormously long winning streak had to end sometime. However, it seemed unlikely that an opponent with a losing record would be the one to knock off the Sooners. So is the mystery of sports that Louisiana-Lafayette, which brought a 9-12 record into today's game with OU, would do the unthinkable. The final score was 7-5 Ragin' Cajuns, in eight innings, ending the Sooners' win streak at 71 games ( box score ). ULL led 4-2 as OU came up in the bottom of the seventh. The Sooners quickly found themselves with two out and a runner on second. Oklahoma had been in precarious spots before during this streak, but always managed to pull through. Lightning struck again today -- for a while at least -- as OU put together two singles (the latter with an ULL error added on) to tie the game ( video ).  In the past, Oklahoma would have shut ULL down in the top of the eighth and scored the winning run in the bottom half. Not today. A single, OU error, and another single loaded ...

Oklahoma-transfer Jordy Bahl announced that she injured her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her first game pitching for Nebraska and will redshirt this season. Best wishes to her for a full recovery!

SATURDAY Texas won its second game vs. UCLA a little more decisively than it won its first contest with the Bruins -- 16-0 . Kentucky defeated No. 3 Stanford for the second day in a row, but the Wildcats fell to San Diego State later in the day. Texas Tech dropped a heartbreaker at Florida State, as the Seminoles scored two in the bottom of the seventh for a 9-8 victory. FSU trailed 8-7 with two on and two out in the bottom of the seventh before getting a walk to load the bases and a two-run single to finish it off ( video ).  Michigan earned one of its best wins in a while by edging No. 18 Florida , 2-1. FRIDAY No. 1 Oklahoma had a close call with No. 10 Washington Friday night. The Sooners scored a single run in the top of the sixth to tie the game and a go-ahead run in the eighth, en route to a 4-3 victory over the Huskies in the Puerto Vallarta tournament. No. 5 Texas has held off No. 8 UCLA by a 3-2 score Friday night in Los Angeles. The Longhorns led 3-0 going into the b...

The 2024 college softball season begins tomorrow, Thursday, February 8 (see ESPN.com preview ). Much of the action during the opening weeks of the season occurs via tournaments, the most prominent of which are listed below in charts I created. The charts also show the leading teams appearing in each tournament, with teams' rankings (if any) from the ESPN.com/USA Softball Preseason Poll appearing in parentheses. You can click on the charts to enlarge them. Three-time defending Women's College World Series winner Oklahoma begins the season as the No. 1-ranked team, with Tennessee (2), Stanford (3), and Florida St. (4) expected to give the Sooners their toughest competition. Check back over the weekend for comments on some of the tournament games!