ESPN.com's Bill Connelly offers an overview of the college softball season thus far (mid-April), reviewing the top teams and players. As Connelly writes, the SEC is domiant. However, the conference's two newest arrivals -- pre-season favorites Texas and Oklahoma -- have each lost a few games. Instead, for the moment at least, the focus is on Texas A&M (15-5 vs. RPI top 25 and winners of 16 of its last 17 games) and Tennessee (winners of four out of six games combined vs. Oklahoma and Texas, but only 10-8 vs. the RPI top 25).
Washington used a first-inning grand-slam homer from pitcher Danielle Lawrie and some late insurance runs to defeat Georgia by a score of 9-3 in tonight's late game. The win gives U-Dub a spot in the best-of-three championship series against Florida starting Monday (Georgia had defeated Washington earlier today, 9-8 in nine innings, to force tonight's rematch). The Huskies thus claimed "top dog" status over Georgia on their side of the bracket. Florida got a two-out grand-slam homer from Ali Gardiner in the bottom of the seventh to edge Alabama 6-5. The Crimson Tide made a strong recovery in the tournament after looking "not ready for prime time" in an opening-round loss to Michigan. But, as a result of tonight's heartbreaking loss to the Gators, Bama is now eliminated. Lowrie's and Gardiner's grand-slams are among four that have been hit so far in this World Series.