Two major tournaments highlight the opening weekend of the 2023 college softball season. One is the Mark Campbell Invitational in Irvine, California, whose seven-team field includes Oklahoma (winner of the last two Women's College World Series and this year's unanimous preseason No. 1), along with 2022 super-regional participant Duke and perennial contender Washington. The other is the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Clearwater, Florida, a 16-team affair. This tourney features last year's WCWS runner-up Texas and four SEC schools (Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Auburn). This NCAA.com article previews the first several weeks' tournaments.
This Friday (and all remaining Fridays of the regular season), I will preview the upcoming weekend's games. Before doing so, I wanted to do an entry, primarily for sports fans who have not watched much softball, on differences they could expect to see between softball and baseball. The Sandy Plains Softball Association of Marietta, Georgia has produced a document entitled Fastpitch 101 , which details the similarities and differences in the rules of the two sports. Here are some of my own observations from over the years: 1. Because the bases are considerably closer together in softball (60 feet) than in baseball (90 feet), softball infielders consistently must pick up ground balls and make their throws to first base quickly, in order to get the runner. In other words, many (if not most) softball grounders result in "bang-bang" plays at first base, necessitating a lot of close calls by first-base umpires, who must detect whether the thrown ball (to the first-baseperso...