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  her

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,