The most prominent event of this past weekend was the Mary Nutter Classic in the Palm Springs, California, area. The 30-team tournament (29 college squads plus a team from Japan) featured three Top Ten teams -- Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Nebraska -- but the trio did not play each other. There were also several teams just outside the national Top Ten.  The shocker of the weekend -- not just at the Mary Nutter but overall -- was No. 4 Oklahoma's 6-4 loss to Long Beach State . The Beach (9-6 at the end of the weekend) went 2-3 at the Nutter, losing to BYU, Oregon State, and St. Mary's, and beating Bethune-Cookman. Texas Tech swept its games against collegiate competition to raise its overall record to 16-1, but dropped a 1-0 exhibition contest to Japan (which doesn't count in the Red Raiders' record).  Nebraska went 5-0 on the weekend, its most impressive win coming over No. 11/13 Texas A&M by an 8-2 tally. Texas went undefeated over five games at Stanford's DeMar...

Here are teams' final win-loss records in the Clearwater Invitational: Tennessee 5-0 (allowing only two runs total) Georgia 5-1 Texas Tech 5-1 Central Florida 3-2 Duke 3-2 Nebraska 3-2 Oklahoma State 3-2 Texas A&M 3-2 Florida State 2-2 Missouri 2-3 UCLA 2-3 Florida Atlantic 1-4 LSU 1-4 NC State 1-4 Northwestern 1-4 James Madison 0-4 Nebraska has handed No. 1 Texas Tech its first loss of the young season, edging the Red Raiders 3-2 . Tech scored single runs in the top of the first and third innings to lead 2-0. Nebraska was lucky to escape further damage in the third, as after scoring its run, Tech had runners on second and third with none out. The next three batters, however, went K, K, and ground-out. The Huskers did all their scoring in B4 and then there was no further scoring. In the bottom of the fourth, Nebraska's first two batters, Hannah Camenzind and Jesse Farrell, doubled and homered, respectively, off of NiJaree Canady to tie the game. A two-out single by Hannah C...

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...