Top 1 (T1) Texas is the visitor tonight... Kayden Henry leading off... Line single to right, bringing up Katie Stewart, who has homered in her last four games and has 31 on the season... As ESPN announcers note, home-plate ump showing early signs of giving Canady the high strike... Stewart pop-up near home for first out... Viviana Martinez fouls out near third base, two down... Reese Atwood up... Henry steals second; throw goes into center, but Henry can't advance further... Atwood grounds back to Canady to end the half-inning... Bottom 1 (B1) Mia Williams grounds to third for first out... Mihyia Davis, who homered in the first last night, HBP... Lauren Allred up... K looking for two outs... Jackie Lis up... Davis steals second... Lis with hard, sinking liner to center, but Henry crouches down to snare it in the air... T2 Leighann Goode up for Texas... Grounds back to Canady for first out... Hannah Wells K swinging for second out... Kaiah Altmeyer ground to short for final out... B...

 Game 1 of the championship series is about to get underway. Texas will be the home team... Top 1 (T1) Teagan Kavan strikes out Mia Williams to get things started... Mihyia Davis homers to left for a quick 1-0 Raider lead (can't find video)... Nothing further for Tech...  Bottom 1 (B1) Kayden Henry leads off with bunt single off of Raider starter Kaitlyn Terry... Katie Stewart homers to center ( video ) to put Longhorns up 2-1... Last year's TTU-Texas championship opener was a pitchers' duel... This year, not so much...Viviana Martinez singles up the middle... Will we see NiJaree Canady soon, as Tech coach Gerry Glasco has been frequently shuffling his pitchers?... Sticking with Terry... Fielder's choice and fly-out for first two outs... Hannah Wells singles, putting runners at the corners with two out... Now Canady's coming in... Kaiah Altmeyer with infield single, 3-1 Longhorns with runners on first and second... Ashton Maloney triples and suddenly it's 5-1 Te...

ALABAMA-TEXAS TECH Game 2 (Winner-take-all rematch) T1, Tech (the visitors in this one) wastes no time getting runners on first and second against Jocelyn Briski, but nothing comes of it... B1, Ni Jaree Canady starting for the Red Raiders... Per ESPN, it's her record 19th appearance in the WCWS, having made it all four years of her career (the first two with Stanford, the last two with Texas Tech)... Bama goes 1-2-3... 1-0 Tech after five, on a Jasmyn Burns homer T4... It's been Canady all the way so far for the Raiders, allowing only one hit... Briski has also gone all the way for the Tide, allowing six hits... Tech wins it 2-0, advancing to a rematch of last year's championship series against the University of Texas, beginning Wednesday night... This will be the Red Raiders' fourth elimination game of the tournament (Game 3 vs. Florida, last night's game vs. UCLA, and tonight's first game vs. Alabama) and they're still alive... Can they make it four for fo...

With Alabama and Tennessee remaining undefeated after yesterday's winners' bracket play, today's action features two match-ups of one-loss teams. After today, two will remain alive and two will be sent packing. TEXAS TECH-UCLA Texas Tech (the visitor) leads 3-2 as Bruins bat in B3... Raiders scored a single run on four hits in T1, which UCLA answered with a two-run shot by Jordan Woolery off of NiJaree Canady to lead 2-1... T2, Jasmyn Burns hits solo-shot for Tech and another run is walked it, making it 3-2 Tech... UCLA pitcher Taylor Tinsley's stat-line isn't pretty after three (allowing seven hits and two walks) but her team is right in the game... B3, Rylee Slimp with a leadoff double for UCLA... Megan Grant K for first out, bringing up Woolery again... Walk and two straight HBP tie the game 3-3, Bruins with bases loaded and only one out... Former Bruin Kaitlyn Terry coming in to face her old teammates, replacing Canady... Nothing further for UCLA... T4... Tech g...

NEBRASKA-ALABAMA T1, Huskers go down scoreless against Jocelyn Briski... B1, Bama with runners at first and second on walk and HBP with no outs against Jordy Frahm... K for first out... K for second out... Marlie Giles blasts one to center, giving Crimson Tide a 3-0 lead... Another K to end the inning... B3, still 3-0... Nebraska brings in Ashley Jensen to pitch, moving Frahm to 1B, to begin the half-inning... Leadoff walk, followed one out later by Husker mess-up playing a bunt, gives the Tide runners on second and third with one out... Giles up again... Hits sac-fly to make it 4-0 Tide, advance trailing runner to third... Audrey Vandagriff at the plate with two out... Ground-out ends inning...  T4, Briski has retired all nine Nebraska batters she's faced so far... Frahm at the plate... K... Hannah Coor grounds out... Hannah Camenzind trying to break through for Huskers... 0-2 count goes to 3-2... Camenzind homers to center, ending Briski's perfect-game, no-hitter, and shutout...

UCLA-ARKANSAS Bruins (the visitors) go quickly in T1... Likewise for Hogs in their half... T2, Aleena Garcia's leadoff homer to center gives UCLA a 1-0 lead... After first out recorded, HBP and single give Bruins runners at first and second for Iowa transfer Soo-Jin Berry... Berry goes oppo to left for three-run homer, making it 4-0 Bruins. A "Berry Bombshell" if you will (which is a drink at Keva Juice )... Razorback left-fielder Kailey Wyckoff appears to lose her mitt over the fence, but presumably she will not be required to play the rest of the game bare-handed...  Pitching change for Arkansas, with Saylor Timmerman coming in... Walk for UCLA... Another walk and then Megan Grant unloads to center -- deep into the bleachers -- for her NCAA single-season record 42nd homer and a 7-0 UCLA lead... It's 9-0 before Arkansas can record a third out... B2, Tinsley struggling a little, allowing Arkansas runners at first and second after two were out and a 3-1 count on the ne...

The Women's College World Series is about to get underway, with the first game pitting No. 11 seed Texas Tech vs. unseeded Mississippi State. The Bulldogs shocked No. 3 seed Oklahoma in their super-regional series. ARKANSAS-NEBRASKA T6, Razorbacks (visitors) batting in a 2-2 tie (Arkansas with a pair in the second, Nebraska with a pair in the fourth). Per ESPN commentators, Husker pitcher Jordy Frahm, who has gone the distance thus far, has retired 11 straight Arkansas hitters at this point... Difficult dribbler down the first-base line gives Hogs a runner at first with one out (ruled a hit, but runner might have been out if 1B-person could have held onto throw)... Grounder back to Frahm leads to double-play, retiring Arkansas... B6, Payton Burnham pitching for Hogs, having replaced Robyn Herron midway through fourth inning... Huskers down 1-2-3... T7,... Tianna Bell leads off for Arkansas... Hard single to left (pinch-run for)... Dakota Kennedy up... 3-0 count... Now full count......

ESPN.com has a nice preview of the WCWS, with a lot of interesting stats. Here's one: Of this year's eight WCWS programs, only two -- Texas and UCLA -- have won the national championship in the past 10 years. Here's the link .

Today's action will feature three super-regional series that have gone to a decisive Game 3. Interestingly, the top three teams in some of the preseason polls -- Texas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma -- are all playing today. The Red Raiders are facing Florida in today's first game, whereas the Longhorns will face Arizona State, and the Sooners will face Mississippi State... Arizona State-Texas Sun Devils and Longhorns (home team) getting underway... The red-hot Kenzie Brown pitching for ASU, Teagan Kavan for UT... B1, Texas with a runner on first and no outs... Nothing comes of it... Still scoreless, as Horns come up in B3... Texas with two in the third, one in the fifth, and two in the sixth lead 5-0, B6... Sun Devils coming up for their final chance to keep their season alive... No further scoring, as the Longhorns win 5-0 and advance to another WCWS... Mississippi State-Oklahoma Bulldogs off to a quick 2-0 lead in T1... Sooners with a threat in B2 off of Delainey Everett, with ru...

Today will feature play in seven series, with one team in each series a game away from reaching the Women's College World Series and the other team trying to force a decisive Game 3 tomorrow. Tennessee, whose series with Georgia started Thursday, has already qualified for the WCWS. I'll be live-blogging as many of the games as I can and updating the chart below, so please check back in during the day... UCLA-UCF Central Florida (the home team) leads UCLA 1-0 on Aubrey Evans homer leading off B1, as the Knights fight to stay alive... T3, Bruins load the bases with none out for Megan Grant, who currently has an NCAA single-season record 40 home runs (with Oklahoma's Kendall Wells just behind at 39)... Count goes to 3-1 on Grant... Called strike for 3-2 count... Grant with deep sac-fly to left, tying game 1-1... Other two runners stay put at first and second, Jordan Woolery (with 34 homers this season) coming up... Easy pop to 2B-person for second out... Aleena Garcia up next....

The big story of today's games is the precarious status of two leading contenders -- Texas and Oklahoma -- in their two-out-of-three super-regional series...  Here's where things stand in tabular form... Teams Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 Alabama (1)-LSU (16) Alabama --- --- Texas (2)-Arizona St Arizona St --- --- Oklahoma (3)-Mississippi St Mississippi St --- --- Nebraska (4)-Oklahoma St (13) Nebraska --- --- Arkansas (5)-Duke (12) Arkansas --- --- Florida (6)-Texas Tech (11) Texas Tech --- --- Tennessee  (7)-Georgia (10) Tennessee Tennessee --- UCLA (8)-Central Florida  UCLA --- --- Specifically, we had Arizona State defeating No. 2-seed Texas 4-1 and Mississippi State outslugging No. 3-seed Oklahoma 11-9 (see below for detailed live-blogging of the Bulldogs-Sooners game)... Other games were blowouts such as No. 1-seed Alabama over LSU 7-0 and No. 8-seed UCLA over UCF 9-1... Below are summaries today's other games... Oklahoma State-Nebraska (Game 1 resumption from Thursday nigh...

This year's super-regionals get underway tonight with the beginning of two of the eight series (Tennessee-Georgia and Nebraska-Oklahoma State). As most readers would know, each series is two-out-of-three, with the winners advancing to the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City. The following chart shows all the matchups, with the teams' national seedings in parentheses. Oklahoma State-Nebraska Cornhuskers' Jordy Frahm, who has appeared in relief many times lately, starts tonight... OSU gets one runner on via infield hit in T1, but no runs. With two outs, Cowgirls' Lexi McDonald fouls off pitch after pitch, but finally swings and misses on Frahm change-up... Ruby Meylan pitching for OSU... Frahm bats leadoff for Nebraska with .421 average and 1.364 OPS... Frahm singles up the middle... Infield grounder gets Frahm at second, but throw to first not in time for double play... Lightning delay... Tonight's weather evidently never becomes conducive to resuming p...

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...