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2026 Season Underway -- Likely to Look a Lot Like Last Year

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...
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2025 WCWS Championship Round -- Game 3

The WCWS championship-deciding game is underway... Top 1 -- TTU can't do anything with a two-out HBP... Bottom 1 -- K for first Texas out... Kayden Henry beats out a grounder to short... Mia Scott grounds a single to right, runner advances to second... Reese Atwood with a sharp line single to left, driving in first run. Throw from left-fielder hits Tech infielder in the back, advancing Longhorn runners to second and third... Katie Stewart with a hard liner to right, now 2-0 UT, runners on the corners with one out... First time in the series Horns have scored in the early innings... Tech catcher throws to third on apparent pick-off attempt (unsuccessful), allowing Stewart to steal second... K for second out... Leighann Goode up for huge at-bat: an out will keep it a 2-0, a single could make it 4-0... Goode blasts homer to left-center ( video ), making it 5-0 Texas... Infield pop to end the inning... Top 2 -- Horns' Teagan Kavan, who in the first inning extended her stretch of...
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2025 WCWS Championship Round -- Game 2

Bottom of the fifth in scoreless game, with Texas Tech having the bases loaded and two out (previously had second and third with one out)... Alana Johnson, a tough hitter, at the plate against Texas's Cambria Salmon... 0-2 count... Now 1-2... Short foul bloop narrowly escapes Longhorn catcher... HBP to bring in game's first run, 1-0 Texas Tech... Pitch gets away (wild-pitch), bringing in another Raider run, 2-0... Easy fly to center ends Tech threat... UT with just six more outs vs. NiJaree Canady to score at least two runs...  T6, leadoff foul-out to left... Mia Scott with solo shot to center ( video ) to cut UT deficit to 2-1... K for second out... Easy foul pop to third for final out...  B6, Citlaly Gutierrez in to pitch for the Horns... Red Raiders get one-out walk... Texas has trouble with slow grounder to 1B-person who has to go several feet away from the bag to field the ball and the toss to 2B-person covering first gets away. If 2B-person had held onto toss, batter pro...
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2025 WCWS Championship Round -- Game 1

Scoreless as Texas comes up in B3... Pretty uneventful except for the top of the first, when Texas Tech loaded the bases with no outs, but Raider pitcher NiJaree Canady hit into 5-2-3 double-play ( video ) and the next batter grounded out to end the threat...  Longhorns get their first hit with two out in B3... Wild pitch sends UT runner to second... Easy grounder back to Canady to end the inning...  T4, Raiders down quietly... Likewise for Longhorns in B4...  T5, with one out, TTU gets runner on via infield fielding error... Runner seemingly cut down easily on steal attempt of second, but call overturned on obstruction. One out, runner on second... Easy flare to left side of infield for second Tech out... Mihyia Davis with bloop single to right-center to drive in runner, 1-0 Red Raiders... Ground-out to first to end half-inning...  B5, UT again goes quietly, although a fly to left with home-run distance was narrowly foul...  T6, Tech down quietly, still leading...
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2025 WCWS Day 5

Today is for determining the two finalists in the Women's College World Series... OKLAHOMA-TEXAS TECH Even with Sooner magic making its presence, the Queens of College Softball are dead, long live the Queens... Texas Tech makes the championship round versus the University of Texas... Texas Tech leading Oklahoma 2-0 on a walk, triple, and single in B2... Same score, heading to B4... Leadoff double to left from TTU's Alana Johnson... Bunted to third, one out... K for second out... Another K for third out... T5 for OU... Sydney Barker with leadoff single to left-center that lands just away from Tech fielders... Pop for one out... Fly-out to warning track in left for second out... Easy fly to left to end T5... B5, with one out, Red Raiders get runner on first on hard one-hopper to first that bounces off 1B-person. Called an error... Ground single to left, runner on first and second... NiJaree Canady, pitching a shutout thus far, now at bat... Per ESPN, Canady has three HR this year...
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2025 WCWS Day 4

Two elimination games today. There's a new twist to the matchups at this stage. Essentially, UCLA and Oklahoma, yesterday's two losing teams, have switched brackets. UCLA, who had been in a bracket with Texas Tech, Oregon, and Mississippi, now switches to the other bracket, playing Tennessee today, with the winner needing to beat Texas twice to advance to the championship round (Texas would need only one win). Oklahoma, formerly in a bracket with Florida, Texas, and Tennessee, will next play Oregon, with the winner needing to beat Texas Tech twice to make the championship round (Texas Tech would need only one win). Oregon-Oklahoma B1, with one out, Duck 2B Kaylynn Jones possibly saves two runs with snare of hard line-drive with Sooner runners on second and third ( video ). Now two down... Walk to load the bases for Cydney Sanders... Foul pop to 3B-person ends threat... Still 0-0... T2, Dezianna Patmon, one of Oregon's postseason offensive heroes, drills a two-out, solo-shot...
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2025 WCWS Day 3

Two winners' bracket games today... TEXAS TECH-UCLA Texas Tech (where I've been on the faculty for 28 years) and UCLA (where I did my undergrad work) about to get started. One potential factor is that some UCLA hitters will have faced TTU's NiJaree Canady when she was at Stanford in the two previous years, when the two schools were still in the Pac 12... Taylor Tinsley starting for the Bruins against (presumably) Canady... T1, Raiders down 1-2-3... T6, Tech leads 2-1 on a fifth-inning steal of home as the catcher throws ball back to pitcher ( video ) and sixth-inning homer by Hailey Toney ( video ), compared to the Bruins' one run on a Kaniya Bragg fifth-inning homer, as Bragg goes oppo on Canady high heat (73 mph) and sends a clothesline shot just over the RF wall... UCLA goes quietly in B6... Tech adds a run in T7 to increase its lead to 3-1... Bruins in B7 with runners on first and second and one out, full count on batter... Pitch that may have been high called for s...
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