As shown in the chart below, 13 of the 16 host teams (i.e., the highest national seeds) have advanced to the super-regionals, including all of the top eight seeds. The three teams outside of the top 16 to advance are Central Florida, Mississippi State, and Arizona State... On a conference basis, nine SEC teams are moving on, four from the Big 12, two from the Big 10, and one from the ACC... Florida and Georgia are the first two teams to advance to the super-regionals... LSU, Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee, and Alabama have joined them (all from the SEC)... Arizona State routs No. 15-seed Texas A&M to advance. Aggies are the second national seed (after Oregon) to be eliminated in this round...  Nebraska edges Grand Canyon 1-0 to advance, with Jordy Frahm coming in for the final two innings to close out the win. Frahm and Alexis Jensen combine for a one-hitter against the Lopes...  Oklahoma joins several of its SEC mates (listed above) in the super-regionals... No. 9 Florida Sta...

T8: NiJaree Canady, who struggled early in the game, back in to pitch, after Texas Tech's miracle B7... Ole Miss goes ahead 9-8 in T8 on single, sac bunt, and single... Nothing further for Rebels, as Raiders come up in B8... B8: Kaitlyn Terry leads off for TTU with four-pitch walk... Jackie Lis up, 2-0 count... 3-0... Another four-pitch walk... Jasmyn Burns coming up, pitching change for the Rebels... 2-0 to Burns... Foul fly for first strike... Called strike, 2-2 count... Burns with flared single to center, now tied 9-9, runners on first and second with none out... Fly out to deep center, lead runner advances to third... Taylor Pannell sac fly to right-center wins the game 10-9... Per ESPN stat, Tech is first team since 2000 to win NCAA tournament game after trailing by 8+ runs; 640 teams had failed in that situation. This stat (probably) does not take into account that Red Raiders trailed by eight with two outs in bottom of seventh... Ole Miss led Texas Tech 8-0 with two outs in...

This year's NCAA softball tournament gets underway Friday. As is my annual tradition, I have created the following geospatial maps based on the regional assignments , showing which teams are traveling from where to the 16 regional sites. I would have thought winning the SEC regular-season title would have been enough to give Oklahoma the No. 1 national seed, the Sooners' loss in the conference tourney notwithstanding. Instead, the top seed went to Alabama, followed by No. 2 Texas -- even though the Longhorns beat the Crimson Tide 7-1 in the SEC tournament final. Alabama and Texas's draws appear below, with both teams looking like strong favorites to advance to the super-regionals. OU dropped to No. 3. where its main regional competition will likely be Michigan and Kansas, middle-of-the-pack teams from the Big 10 and Big 12, respectively. Nebraska, the Big 10 champion of the regular season (23-1) and tournament, comes in as the No. 4 seed. Star pitcher Jordy Frahm makes th...

Regular-season conference play is over, with conference tournaments beginning this coming week.  In reviewing final conference standings, let's start with the deepest conference, the SEC . National No. 1 Oklahoma took two of three at Texas A&M this weekend to finish 20-4 in league play (48-7 overall) and edge out national No. 3 Alabama (19-5, 47-6) for the SEC regular-season title. The Crimson Tide swept South Carolina to close out its conference schedule. Florida (17-7, 47-9) came in third. Behind the Gators was a three-way tie for fourth, fifth, and sixth, with Tennessee, Texas, and Texas A&M each finishing at 16-8. As some readers may recall, the defending Women's College World Series champion Longhorns began the season 31-1 overall, before experiencing the brutality of SEC competition. Texas finished the season 39-10, meaning the Horns went 8-9 in their final 17 games. A big story for the Sooners this season is the slugging of catcher Kendall Wells, who is in only h...

Texas, seeking to avoid a three-game sweep at the hands of Oklahoma, leads today's series finale 3-0 on a three-run homer by the Longhorns' Kayden Henry B2. Teagan Kavan in the circle for Texas, LSU transfer Sydney Berson for OU... Sooners get one of the runs back on an Abby Dayton solo-shot in T3, now 3-1 Texas... OU adds a run T4 on two singles and an error, cutting its deficit to 3-2 ... Horns threatening in B4 with runners on first and second and one out... Nothing comes of it... T5, Leighann Goode homer gives UT a little breathing room, 4-2 ... T6, single, passed-ball, and two sac-flies bring the Sooners within 4-3 ... B6, Katie Stewart homer restores Texas lead to two runs, 5-3 ... After OU rallied for two runs in T7 to tie the game 5-5 and then took a 6-5 lead in T8, Texas came up with three in B8 -- a lead-off solo-shot by pinch-hitter Hannah Wells and then a one-out two-run blast by Stewart -- to win 8-6 ... Highlights of the game are available here on YouTube ...

Since I last posted, Oklahoma has taken over first place in the SEC with a 12-1 conference record (39-3 overall), two games clear of second-place Alabama (11-3) in the loss column. Texas, which started off the year 31-1, is currently on a three-game losing streak and fifth in the conference at 9-4 (32-5). Florida (13-4) and Texas A&M (10-4) are the other two teams ahead of Texas. The nationally No. 2 Sooners and No. 4 Longhorns began their three-game series last night in Austin, with OU prevailing 3-0. Oklahoma soph Audrey Lowry went the distance, striking out 4 and allowing 6 hits and only 1 walk. This Sports Illustrated article credited the defense behind Lowry. I'll be commenting on Game 2 of the OU-UT series, which has just come on the air on ESPN. Another sophomore, Miali Guachino, is starting in the circle for the Sooners... Bottom 1, Longhorns have taken a 1-0 lead on a one-out single up the middle by Viviana Martinez. A line-out double-play gets OU out of a jam... H...

In a game that just concluded on ESPN 2, Florida defeated Tennessee 3-2 to take the teams' weekend series two games to one (the Lady Vols took Friday's opener 2-1, whereas the Gators prevailed 5-2 on Saturday). UF looked to be in commanding position in today's game, leading 3-0 as the Lady Vols batted in the top of the sixth. However, Tennessee got a two-run homer from Gabby Leach to close to within 3-2 and then, in the top of the seventh, got its leadoff batter to second when the Florida left-fielder lost a routine fly in the sun. The Lady Vols couldn't get the runner home, however.

In what may end up being the most important series of the Big XII schedule this year, No. 2 Texas Tech took two of three from visiting No. 12 Arizona. The Wildcats stunned the Red Raiders in Friday night's series opener, winning 9-0 via run rule after five innings. U of A knocked TTU starter NiJaree Canady out of the game with none out in the top of the fifth, after Canady had given up a grand-slam to Grace Jenkins to make it 9-0. Canady also allowed a pair of homers in the third, a three-run blast also from Jenkins and a solo shot by Anyssa Wild. Jalen Adams pitched all five inning for the Cats, allowing four hits and one walk. The opener of Saturday's doubleheader didn't start much better for Tech. An Addison Duke three-run homer off of Kaitlyn Terry gave Arizona a 5-1 lead in the top of the second. However, the Raiders put up five-spots in the second and fourth innings en route to a 14-6 run rule win of their own (six innings). Rylie Holder, the Wildcats' starter i...

The most prominent event of this past weekend was the Mary Nutter Classic in the Palm Springs, California, area. The 30-team tournament (29 college squads plus a team from Japan) featured three Top Ten teams -- Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Nebraska -- but the trio did not play each other. There were also several teams just outside the national Top Ten.  The shocker of the weekend -- not just at the Mary Nutter but overall -- was No. 4 Oklahoma's 6-4 loss to Long Beach State . The Beach (9-6 at the end of the weekend) went 2-3 at the Nutter, losing to BYU, Oregon State, and St. Mary's, and beating Bethune-Cookman. Texas Tech swept its games against collegiate competition to raise its overall record to 16-1, but dropped a 1-0 exhibition contest to Japan (which doesn't count in the Red Raiders' record).  Nebraska went 5-0 on the weekend, its most impressive win coming over No. 11/13 Texas A&M by an 8-2 tally. Texas went undefeated over five games at Stanford's DeMar...

Here are teams' final win-loss records in the Clearwater Invitational: Tennessee 5-0 (allowing only two runs total) Georgia 5-1 Texas Tech 5-1 Central Florida 3-2 Duke 3-2 Nebraska 3-2 Oklahoma State 3-2 Texas A&M 3-2 Florida State 2-2 Missouri 2-3 UCLA 2-3 Florida Atlantic 1-4 LSU 1-4 NC State 1-4 Northwestern 1-4 James Madison 0-4 Nebraska has handed No. 1 Texas Tech its first loss of the young season, edging the Red Raiders 3-2 . Tech scored single runs in the top of the first and third innings to lead 2-0. Nebraska was lucky to escape further damage in the third, as after scoring its run, Tech had runners on second and third with none out. The next three batters, however, went K, K, and ground-out. The Huskers did all their scoring in B4 and then there was no further scoring. In the bottom of the fourth, Nebraska's first two batters, Hannah Camenzind and Jesse Farrell, doubled and homered, respectively, off of NiJaree Canady to tie the game. A two-out single by Hannah C...

UCLA and Tennessee (home team) are currently on ESPN-U in a late-afternoon matchup of Top Ten teams. Each team has had some scoring chances, but it's scoreless in B3... The Vols' Elsa Morrison triples to the wall in the left-center gap, driving in two for a 2-0 Tennessee lead, B3... A successful squeeze play and a Taelin Holley grand-slam have expanded the Vols' lead to 7-0... A Maddi Rutan solo shot ups the Tennessee lead to 8-0, still in B3... *** ESPN.com has a feature article on how UCLA RF Megan Grant also played on the Bruin women's basketball team. She played a total of 33 minutes in 14 games, scoring six points (three two-pointers). Basketball coach Cori Close saw Grant's leadership and motivational skills as an asset to her team, whereas softball coach Kelly Inouye-Perez thought some of the basketball training would enhance Grant's speed and conditioning for softball. What I found neat is how Grant's coaches and teammates from one sport would go wa...

UPDATE (2:15 Central): Two final scores since the last posting: Oklahoma State 6, Georgia 5; and Texas Tech 3, Florida State 2... The Clearwater Invitational ( link ) is underway, with No. 8 (tied) Nebraska (now 4-2) shutting out No. 10 LSU (6-1) in the opener (all noted rankings are from the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll). Jordy (Bahl) Frahm pitched the final three innings, allowing five hits but, of course, no runs. Frahm. According to the posted schedule, No. 23 Oklahoma State should be playing No. 17 Georgia at the moment, with a match-up of No. 1 Texas Tech and No. 6 Florida State starting soon. By my count, it looks like there are 16 teams in tournament, including No. 3 Tennessee and No. 7 UCLA. With its 6-0 start (all blowouts over unranked teams except for a 3-2 win over No. 8/tie Texas A&M), Texas Tech leads the nation.  The University of Texas is No. 2, having gone 4-1 in its first weekend (including a split of two games with Nebraska and two wins over No. 24 Washington...

The 2026 college softball season is now underway, with some teams having begun their seasons yesterday and many more doing so today. There is a broad consensus that three teams -- last year's WCWS champion Texas, WCWS runner-up Texas Tech, and four-peat champions Oklahoma (2021-2024)  -- are head and shoulders above the rest this year. The Longhorns are ranked No. 1 in most preseason polls ( here and here ), with the Red Raiders atop the Softball America poll . UT and Tech are tied for No. 1 in the ESPN/USA Softball poll. Oklahoma is a consistent No. 3 in the polls behind UT and Tech. High-profile transfers continue to be one of the biggest stories in the sport, with the Red Raiders bringing in four of the top-rated ones (click here for full transfer list) Tonight, in what I would consider the most exciting matchup of the opening weekend, Texas faces No. 9 Nebraska, who features star pitcher Jordy (Bahl) Frahm. As part of two Oklahoma championship teams (2022 and 2023), the th...