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... Mississippi State-Oklahoma Bulldogs off to a quick 2-0 lead in T1... Sooners with a threat in B2 off of Delainey Everett, with runners on first and second and two out... Lexi McDaniel, who blasted a pinch-hit homer yesterday, will try to duplicate that feat... Grounds out weakly to third, still 2-0 MSU... Bulldogs add third run in T3, lead 3-0... Still 3-0 MSU as it bats in T4... Paige Ernstes homer makes it 4-0 Mississippi State... Berkley Zache replacing Miali Guachino in the circle for OU... Texas Tech-Florida Gators are the home team. Keagan Rothrock starting her third game of the series in the circle... T1, ...

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...

Regular-season conference play is over, with conference tournaments beginning this coming week.  In reviewing final conference standings, let's start with the deepest conference, the SEC . National No. 1 Oklahoma took two of three at Texas A&M this weekend to finish 20-4 in league play (48-7 overall) and edge out national No. 3 Alabama (19-5, 47-6) for the SEC regular-season title. The Crimson Tide swept South Carolina to close out its conference schedule. Florida (17-7, 47-9) came in third. Behind the Gators was a three-way tie for fourth, fifth, and sixth, with Tennessee, Texas, and Texas A&M each finishing at 16-8. As some readers may recall, the defending Women's College World Series champion Longhorns began the season 31-1 overall, before experiencing the brutality of SEC competition. Texas finished the season 39-10, meaning the Horns went 8-9 in their final 17 games. A big story for the Sooners this season is the slugging of catcher Kendall Wells, who is in only h...