No. 2 UCLA hosts No. 3 Washington in a four-game series this weekend, which almost certainly will carry major national and conference implications. Should either team dominate the series, the winner would move into contention for the nation's No. 1 ranking (currently held by Oklahoma) and take a clear lead for the Pac 12 conference title. Information on the series -- dates, times, and television coverage -- is available here . UPDATE 1: Friday's opener to UCLA , 6-1. UPDATE 2:   Saturday split of a double-header, 7-4 Huskies and 6-1 Bruins. UPDATE 3:  UCLA takes Sunday's final game , 4-2, to take three of four. Sunday's Game 4 of the series will be telecast on ESPN2 at 1:00 Pacific. UPDATE 4: No. 19 Mizzou routed No. 6 Arkansas , 10-1, on Sunday to capture the first two games of the teams' three-game series. The teams will play once more, on Monday night. Also at 1:00 Pacific, the SEC Network will show No. 19 Missouri at No. 6 Arkansas.  The Razorbacks jumped out ...

Here are some of the COVID-19-related changes being made to the 2021 season, apparently aimed at reducing air travel and large gatherings of teams. I don't claim this list to be comprehensive; if there are other changes you know of, please e-mail me via my faculty website in the links section and I will add them. The Mary Nutter Classic has been cancelled .  The Judi Garman Classic has been scaled back to include only four teams, all from California (Loyola Marymount, Fresno State, San Jose State, and the host, Cal State Fullerton). Teams in the B1G (Big 10) will (a) play only conference games and (b) will go down to Leesburg, Florida to escape the late-February/early-March cold of the Midwest and play intensive stretches of games. For example, Michigan will play a doubleheader with Purdue on February 26, a doubleheader with Iowa on February 27, and yet another twin-bill, on February 28, with Illinois.

Welcome back! The 2021 college softball season gets off to a limited start today, with Cal State Fullerton hosting Oregon State and Utah State in the Easton Invitational . [UPDATE: There are some other scheduled tournaments , as well, but some of these have been cancelled due to the cold snap covering a large segment of the country.] College sports have seen a lot of chaos during the 2020-21 academic year due to COVID-19. As one example, the CBS Sports website has compiled a list of nearly 200 "notable" men's college basketball games that have been postponed or cancelled so far this season. Whether softball will experience a similar situation remains to be seen, but clearly many athletic departments have had difficulty controlling Coronavirus transmission within some of their sports teams. I'll be keeping an eye on things and will report on major college softball games if/when they take place.

As virtually any reader of this blog would know already, NCAA college softball -- and all other winter and spring sports -- is over for the remainder of the 2019-20 academic year. In a March 12 announcement, the NCAA canceled all remaining national championship events under its jurisdiction, including the Women's College World Series , due to the worldwide Coronavirus outbreak. Prior to that announcement, many conferences had cancelled regular-season games and/or conference-championship events. As a practical matter, once the NCAA national championships were canceled, there was seemingly no purpose in trying to play any regular games, even if the Coronavirus threat were to diminish. Hence, the season is over. Presumably, there will be further news developments regarding college softball and other sports, such as details over how athletes who played partial seasons (such as softballers) will receive a full or partial year of extra eligibility to make up for their lost opportunit...

Texas has just edged Michigan , 1-0, with a double, sac bunt, and sac fly in the sixth. The Longhorns go to 2-1 in the Garman Classic, having lost to Fresno State earlier Saturday, and beaten Washington on Friday.

The 14-team Judi Garman Classic gets underway today in Fullerton, California. The nation's No. 2, 3, and 4 teams according to the latest ESPN.com/USA Softball poll -- Washington, Texas, and LSU -- are participating in the Garman . The only other ranked teams from this poll in the field  are No. 11 Michigan and No. 24 Texas Tech. LSU edged Texas Tech 6-5 this afternoon. The Red Raiders rallied for three runs in the top of the seventh to tie the game, only to have the Tigers score a run to win in the bottom half of the inning... With the win over Texas Tech, LSU avoided what would have been an embarrassing 0-2 start in the Garman Classic, as the Tigers dropped their opener to Loyola Marymount...  Tech, on the other hand, goes 0-2, losing also to host Cal State Fullerton. *** Before Texas joins the field at the Judi Garman Classic, however, the Longhorns are playing tonight at No. 1 UCLA. A gametracker is available here . Texas leads 2-1 at the moment (6:40 pm Pacific),...

UCLA stands at 15-0 this season, after going unscathed at the Mary Nutter Classic. However, this past weekend's wins did not come easily for the Bruins. Both of UCLA's Saturday games, vs. Wisconsin and Florida, went to extra innings .