Tag: college softball

Texas softball wins series over No. 1 Oklahoma

After Oklahoma won the first of a three-game series 5-2 on Friday, the Longhorns registered consecutive 2-1 victories.

The No. 1-ranked Oklahoma Sooners have been the gold standard of college softball in recent seasons. At least for a weekend, the No. 5 Texas Longhorns had something to say about that.

After Oklahoma won the first of a three-game series 5-2 on Friday, the Longhorns registered consecutive 2-1 victories on Saturday and Sunday in Austin.

The Longhorns improved to 31-6 (11-4 Big 12), while the Sooners dropped to 35-3 (13-2 Big 12). Saturday’s win for Texas saw an end to Oklahoma’s 40-game Big 12 Conference winning streak.

“We probably did what most people thought was impossible and that’s to beat Oklahoma two days in a row,” said Longhorns head coach Mike White.

White pointed to the team’s pitching and defense as reasons for the victory.

In the circle, Texas’ Citlaly Gutierrez pitched an efficient game Saturday, giving up one run on six hits while striking out two batters, throwing 94 pitches. Texas got a combined effort from Teagan Kavan and Estelle Czech on Sunday as Katie Stewart’s 2-run home run proved to be the difference in Texas getting the series victory.

Longhorns, Sooners set for top-five showdown in softball

The No. 5-ranked Longhorns are getting national TV exposure for weekend series against the No. 1 Sooners.

The No. 5-ranked Texas Longhorns softball team is getting national TV exposure for weekend series against the No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners starting Friday on the networks of ESPN.

First pitch of Friday’s contest is set for 5:30 p.m. CT at Red & Charline McCombs Field, with ESPNU broadcasting the game. Saturday’s contest is set for 7 p.m. with ESPN broadcasting the game.

Sunday’s rubber match is set for 1 p.m. with Longhorn Network broadcasting the game.

It will be an opportunity for the program, who has started 29-5 (9-3 Big 12), to show how it stacks up against the defending Women’s College World Series champion Sooners.

Infielder Joley Mitchell leads the Longhorns with a .450 average. Catcher Reese Atwood leads Texas with 52 RBI and 12 home runs, batting .400. Outfielder Ashton Maloney boasts a .424 average while outfielder Kayden Henry’s average sits at .404.

In the circle, Teagan Kavan leads the Longhorns with an 11-2 record, starting 13 games. She has a 1.84 ERA. Citlaly Gutierrez leads Texas with a 1.17 ERA. She is 6-0 in 11 appearances with nine starts. Mac Morgan is 8-0 with a 1.26 ERA.

Alabama moves down in latest USA TODAY/NFCA Coaches Poll Top 25

A recent series loss to a conference opponent has Alabama softball sliding in the latest USA TODAY/NFCA Coaches Poll

Alabama Crimson Tide softball is having a strong season as the team continues in-conference play against other impressive SEC programs. A recent series loss to the Kentucky Wildcats on the road, split 2-1, led to a slight fall in the latest Coaches Poll.

Up next for head coach Patrick Murphy and the Crimson Tide is a brief homestead against Ole Miss before heading to Birmingham to play a one-game series against Samford. From there, the Crimson Tide will return to Tuscaloosa to face Texas A&M Aggies.

It’s a long season with plenty of opportunities to improve and rise up the rankings, but as things currently stand, Alabama sits at No. 14 and has an overall record of 26-8.

Check out the full USA TODAY/NFCA Softball Coaches Poll.

Rank Team Record Points Prev.
1 Oklahoma 34-1 800 (32) 1
2 Duke 29-3 727 5
3 Georgia 29-5 707 3
4 Texas 29-5 678 2
5 LSU 29-4 658 6
6 Tennessee 28-5 652 4
7 Oklahoma State 29-6 642 8
8 Stanford 27-6 599 7
9 Washington 25-5 560 9
10 Florida 31-5 534 10
11 Missouri 29-7 453 12
12 UCLA 20-8 431 14
13 Texas A&M 28-7 397 11
14 Alabama 26-8 348 13
15 Virginia Tech 25-8-1 318 15
16 Mississippi State 25-9 297 17
17 Clemson 24-10 275 16
18 Florida State 24-9 265 19
19 Arkansas 25-9 261 20
20 California 26-10 209 18
21 Arizona 22-11-1 143 21
22 South Carolina 26-10 139 22
23 Boston University 27-3 95 25
24 Oregon 20-12 69 24
25 Baylor 19-12 46 46

Others Receiving Votes

Texas State (38), Kentucky (17), Louisiana (12), Nevada (10), Kansas (9), FAU (8), Miami (8), Virginia (3), Auburn (2).

Roll Tide Wire will continue to follow Alabama softball as the 2024 season progresses.

Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow AJ Spurr on X @SpurrFM. 

Alabama moves up in latest USA TODAY/NFCA Coaches Poll Top 25

Alabama softball continues to trend upward in the latest national softball top-25 rankings!

With some late-game heroics, Alabama softball avoided the sweep against No. 5 Georgia on the road and will now look to bounce back with a few non-conference games before getting back into SEC play.

The Crimson Tide will face Samford and UAB at home over the next few days and then host No. 16 Virginia Tech.

In the latest rankings, Patrick Murphy and his team move up a single spot despite the recent losses. This team has top-10 potential and has plenty of time left in the season to make significant progress in the rankings.

Playing in the SEC, Alabama will be tested over the next couple of weeks with some intense in-conference competition. In the latest rankings, the Tide find themselves a the sixth-highest-ranked SEC program.

Keep in mind that next season, Oklahoma and Texas will join the conference. They rank No. 1 and No. 3, respectively, in the latest top-25.

Check out the full USA TODAY/NFCA Softball Coaches Poll.

Rank Team Record Points Change
1 Oklahoma 27-1 794 (26) –
2 LSU 24-1 771 (6) –
3 Texas 24-3 727 –
4 Oklahoma State 24-3 692 –
5 Georgia 13-4 666 –
6 Duke 22-2 637 –
7 Tennessee 22-4 610 +1
8 Washington 20-4 584 -1
9 Stanford 22-5 545 –
10 Florida 25-4 512 –
11 Clemson 21-6 461 +1
12 Texas A&M 25-3 432 +1
13 Alabama 22-5 392 +1
14 UCLA 17-6 371 +1
15 Missouri 22-6 369 -4
16 Virginia Tech 21-4-1 306 +2
17 Florida State 18-8 280 -1
18 Arkansas 22-6 245 +2
19 California 21-7 193 -2
20 Mississippi State 21-6 190 +1
21 Arizona 20-7-1 130 +1
22 Baylor 16-8 101 -3
23 USC 21-7 78 –
24 Boston University 20-3 66 –
25 Auburn 14-6-1 59 –

Others Receiving Votes

Oregon (55), Louisiana (43), Kansas (40), Kentucky (25), Texas State (19), Miami (6), Grand Canyon (1).

Roll Tide Wire will continue to follow Alabama softball as the 2024 season progresses.

Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow AJ Spurr on X @SpurrFM. 

Texas Softball: No. 5 Longhorns defeat No. 8 UCLA Bruins, 3-2

Texas softball made a statement in Top 10 win over UCLA.

Texas softball got off to a hot start on Friday. The No. 5 Longhorns earned a Top 10 victory over the No. 8 UCLA Bruins, 3-2. Continue reading “Texas Softball: No. 5 Longhorns defeat No. 8 UCLA Bruins, 3-2”

Notre Dame Softball: Irish Start Season With Opening Day Split

An up and down Opening Day for the Fighting Irish

Notre Dame’s 2024 softball season got underway Friday with a pair of games in Clearwater, Florida and the Irish splitting the two.

The Irish defeated Central Arkansas in the opener 3-0 after plating all three runs in the seventh inning, starting with an RBI double from third baseman Cassidy Grimm.

Alexis Laudenslager was excellent on the bump, going 6.1 innings and allowing just one hit.  Freshman Kami Kamzik recorded the final two outs for the Fighting Irish.

Game two saw Notre Dame struggle against South Alabama, dropping the contest 5-1. South Alabama opened strong by scoring four runs over the first two innings off of Shannon Becker as the Irish played from behind all game.

Notre Dame’s only run of the contest came in the sixth inning when catcher Carlli Kloss tripled and eventually was batted in by shortstop Addison Amaral.

Notre Dame returns to action Saturday against No. 13 Utah at 1 p.m. ET in a game that will be broadcast on MLB Network, the first ever softball broadcast on the channel.

Alabama Softball 2024 team roster

Get to know Alabama Softball’s 2024 roster!

Alabama’s 2024 softball season gets underway with a game against Villanova at the Buzz Classing in Atlanta. Patrick Murphy returns for another season as head coach and expectations remain high.

The Crimson Tide will open the 2024 season ranked No. 14, which make Alabama the third-highest-ranked SEC team (fifth if you include soon-to-be-added Texas and Oklahoma).

In 2023, the Tide finished the season with an overall record of 45-22 with an in-conference record of a somewhat disappointing 14-10. Alabama lost both games it played at the Women’s College World Series.

As the season rolls on, stars will emerge and the excitement will build. Get to know the 2024 Alabama softball roster.

Note: Not all players have photos available to use. General images will be replaced with photos of the player as the season progresses. 

Sooners sweep the WCWS and take home 3rd consecutive national title

See which record the Sooners broke with their championship win.

The Sooners have done it again and broken a few records in the process. Oklahoma Sooners softball has taken home their third straight NCAA National Championship. The Sooners defeated the Florida State Seminoles in two games and extended their win streak to 53 games.

The Sooners won in 2021 and 2022 while the Seminoles’ last title was in 2018. Florida State and Oklahoma met in the 2021 championship where Oklahoma started its national title winning streak.

Either title would be impressive on its own, but doing it all at the same time is well, history-making. The Sooners now hold the longest win streak in college softball history, far surpassing the 1996-1997 Arizona Wildcats who held the record previously at 47 games.

It had been 367 days since the Sooners lost a game in the Women’s College World Series. However, the journey this season hasn’t been smooth sailing.

“I think this really was the roughest (season) I’ve ever had to go through just because of with lots of fans and the growth of the sport comes a lot of pressure. I think I’ve felt that and they (our players) have felt that,” said head coach Patty Gasso.

The Sooners are now “only the second team in history to win three consecutive national titles (UCLA 1988-90).”

“It’s so crazy to see how our lives have changed,” Gasso said. “The fans in Oklahoma are absolutely fantastic, (but) it starts to feel like you’re getting smothered a little bit because everybody wants something. I heard (our players) talking about it. For all of us it’s different. I just want to coach. All of a sudden, your life isn’t regular anymore. So that’s really where they talk a little bit about mental health. It’s so different being a student-athlete now. I mean, it’s completely different. The expectations of everything. The fact that we got here and we won this is just mind-boggling with all of the wave of pressure and so forth. I could not be more proud of this group.

“To be sitting up here and telling you this is still kind of amazing because everybody’s out to get us. They want to bring down the Evil Empire, whatever it is. I don’t know. We just want to play ball. That’s all. Jayda Coleman wants to rob home runs. Tiare Jennings wants to hit doubles and be clutch. That’s how they’re made.”

This is the seventh national title in program history and the sixth in the past 10 years for Patty Gasso’s Sooners.

6 teams remain in Women’s College World Series

Is your team still in the Women’s College World Series?

The race to the Women’s College World Series (WCWS) championship game is slowly closing in and two teams have been eliminated from the tournament. The Utah Utes and the Alabama Crimson Tide were eliminated on Friday which means only six teams remain in the chase for a national title.

The remaining teams are battling it out on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to determine who makes it to the final set of games. There are two brackets and when a team loses a game it is sent to an elimination bracket to battle its way back into the main bracket. However, once a team loses its second game, then the team is eliminated from the WCWS.

The remaining teams in bracket one are No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 4 Tennessee, and No. 9 Stanford. The remaining teams in bracket two are No. 3 Florida State, No. 6 Oklahoma State, and No. 7 Washington.

The winner from bracket one and bracket two will then play in a best-of-three series for the championship. The championship series runs from June 7-9, if necessary.

Here is the schedule for the remaining games in bracket one and bracket two before championship play starts on June 7. All times are ET.

June 3
  • Game 7 | No. 1 Oklahoma vs. No. 4 Tennessee | 3 p.m. | ABC
  • Game 8 | No. 3 Florida State vs. No. 7 Washington | 7 p.m. | ESPN
June 4
  • Game 9 | No. 9 Stanford vs. Loser of Game 8 | 3 p.m. | ABC
  • Game 10 | No. 6 Oklahoma State vs. Loser of Game 7 | 7 p.m. | ESPN2
June 5
  • Game 11 | Winner of Game 7 vs. Winner of Game 9 | 12 p.m. | ESPN
  • Game 12 (if necessary) | 2:30 p.m. | ESPN
  • Game 13 | Winner of Game 8 vs. Winner of Game 10 | 7 p.m. | ESPN
  • Game 14 (if necessary) | 9:30 p.m. | ESPN