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...

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...

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...

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...