The USA national team, which won mid-July's World Cup of softball in Oklahoma City, has now arrived in Beijing, China for the World Championships of the sport. Play begins August 27. The main distinctions between the World Cup and World Championships, as best I can tell, are that the latter has more teams competing and is being used to qualify nations for the 2008 Olympics. The website for the World Championships can be accessed here.
Stanford pitching ace NiJaree Canady has reportedly entered the transfer portal ( link ), having completed two seasons in the circle for the Cardinal. Stanford has made the WCWS in both of Canady's seasons on the team. Another school hit hard by the transfer portal is the University of Washington, with an exodus of eight Huskies . This list of the top ten players in the portal includes four from UW. Today is the final day of the 30-day window for players to enter the portal.