Tag: D1softball

Duke softball remains seventh in D1Softball rankings amid eight-game win streak

Despite eight straight wins in dominant fashion, the Blue Devils remained seventh in the D1Softball rankings released on Monday.

D1 Softball released its updated top 25 on Monday and Duke stayed put at seventh despite some scorching recent form.

The Blue Devils lost a defensive battle with consensus No. 1 Oklahoma in the season opener, but they have ripped off eight straight wins since. They scored 16 runs in five innings against Iowa State, 18 runs in five innings against North Dakota State, and allowed one run across four games over this past weekend in Miami.

Senior Claire Davidson, junior Ana Gold, and sophomore Aminah Vega share the team lead with 14 RBIs, powered by Gold’s team-leading three home runs.

Pitchers Sophie Garner-MacKinnon and Lillie Walker haven’t allowed an earned run in 16 combined innings, and Jala Wright has surrendered two in her 17.2 innings in the circle.

The Sooners still lead the D1Softball rankings with rival Texas close behind in second. Georgia, Washington, and Tennessee also made the top five, with LSU, the Blue Devils, Oklahoma State, Stanford, and Clemson rounding out the top 10.

Duke gets a chance at nine straight wins on Friday against Villanova, the start of the weekend’s Duke Invitational.

D1Softball names two Razorbacks to preseason All-American team

Nia Carter and Bri Ellis made more history for Arkansas softball with selections to D1Softball’s preseason All-American team.

Two Arkansas Razorback softball players were named to D1Softball’s preseason All-American second team on Friday.

Redshirt senior outfielder [autotag]Nia Carter[/autotag] and junior first baseman [autotag]Bri Ellis[/autotag] each earned the honor. The pair are just the fifth and sixth Hogs ever selected to D1Softball’s preseason All-American teams – all of which have come since 2020.

Carter, a transfer from Iowa, chose to play for the Hogs for her final season of eligibility. Carter’s 2023 was incredible as she started all 62 games and recorded 101 hits, 30 RBIs, 45 runs scored, eight stolen bases and 115 total bases with a .479 batting average. She earned plenty of accolades following the year, including first team All-Big Ten and third team All-American nods.

Ellis enters her first season as a Razorback after two stellar seasons at Auburn. She boasts 117 career starts, 96 RBIs, 87 hits and 34 home runs with a career batting average of .288. Last year, she started all 62 games while recording 42 hits, 47 RBIs and 14 home runs with a .275 batting average.

The Hogs will begin their season on Feb. 8 at 1:00 p.m in Boca Raton, Fla. when they face Marshall as part of the Paradise Classic.

Four LSU Softball players make D1Softball’s Top 100 Rankings

Taylor Pleasants, Sydney Berzon, Ciara Briggs and Daneica Coffey are the four Tigers who made the top 100 list.

D1Softball has released a list of who they think are the Top 100 players in the country as we head into the 2024 season. Four Tigers have made the list and two of them are inside the top 25.

[autotag]Taylor Pleasants[/autotag], [autotag]Sydney Berzon[/autotag], [autotag]Ciara Briggs[/autotag], and [autotag]Daneica Coffey[/autotag] are the four who made the top 100 list. Those four were instrumental in leading LSU to a 42-17 record last season and a chance to host their own regional.

The season did not end as planned as the Tigers lost back-to-back games against UL-Lafayette in the Baton Rouge Regional to end their season. LSU Softball starts the 2024 season on Feb. 8 against Nicholls at Tiger Park.

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9 Oklahoma Sooners included in D1Softball’s top 100 players from 2023

After a historic year, nine Oklahoma Sooners were featured in the top 50 of D1Softball’s top 100 players of the 2023 season.

The Oklahoma Sooners had a historic year. They had a record-breaking win streak that reached 53 games by the end of their national championship three-peat. The three national titles in a row mark only the second time it’s been done in the history of the sport under the NCAA.

You have to go back to the early days when UCLA won three in a row in the 1980s. At a time when the talent is at an all-time high and it’s spread throughout the nation, Patty Gasso’s Sooners beat the best of the best on their way to their third straight national championship and a 53-game win streak to close the season.

It was a total team effort, but there were several individuals that played significant roles along the way to help Oklahoma secure its seventh national title in school history.

Reflecting on the offseason, D1Softball ranked the top 100 players from the 2023 season, and nine Oklahoma Sooners were included in the top 50. Let’s take a look.

Tigers occupy No. 20 in final D1Softball poll

Auburn Softball’s most successful season under Mickey Dean ends with a top-20 ranking.

Auburn’s season came to an end against the Clemson Tigers in the final game of the Clemson Regional a few weeks ago.

The 2023 NCAA Softball season came to an end last week when the Oklahoma Sooners won the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma by sweeping Florida State.

D1Softball released its final poll of the season and Auburn checks in at No. 20.

The SEC had seven teams make the poll. Other than Auburn, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, LSU, and Texas A&M represented the conference.

Auburn’s roster will be undergoing a transition before the Tigers take the diamond for the first time in 2024.

Check out the full poll here.

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Jayda Coleman named D1Softball’s Defensive Player of the Year

After another tremendous season patrolling centerfield, Oklahoma’s Jayda Coleman was named D1Softball’s Defensive Player of the Year.

The Oklahoma Sooners have had arguably the two best defensive players in college softball for the last several years: [autotag]Grace Lyons[/autotag], the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, and [autotag]Jayda Coleman[/autotag], the Big 12 Player of the Year.

In Oklahoma’s national championship run, it was Coleman who stole the show with her incredible athleticism and playmaking ability that made her the ace up the pitching staff’s sleeves. What she’s able to do patrolling center field for the Sooners has been a cheat code. A home run hit to center isn’t a home run unless it’s hit 20 feet beyond the wall. There’s no sneaking it over the fence in center because Jayda Coleman will not let you.

After another incredible season, Jayda Coleman earned D1Softball’s Defensive Player of the Year award for 2023.

Coleman finished the season with a perfect fielding percentage and three assists. She showed how much she can impact a contest in the championship series, and unfortunately for Florida State’s Kalei Harding. In Game 1, Coleman erased one of the FSU’s two hits by throwing a strike to second base to prevent a double from Harding. The next day, Coleman kept Game 2 scoreless by robbing a would-be three-run homer off the bat of Harding. – D1Softball

There’s a case to be made that Coleman is the best player in softball. Though several players have strong arguments, Coleman’s ability to regularly take runs off the board is an X-factor that few teams can match. Her range and ability to go up over the center field wall reminds of the former Seattle Mariners legend Ken Griffey Jr. Griffey made a habit of robbing home run balls and in turn, snatching momentum.

Coleman does the same.

In both games of the WCWS championship series against Florida State, Coleman made momentum-stealing plays to keep the Seminoles’ offense at bay.

She’s simply the best there is, and we get to witness her greatness again in 2024.

 

Jordy Bahl named D1Softball’s Pitcher of the Year

After a fantastic season Jordy Bahl was named D1Softball’s Pitcher of the Year for 2023.

After a slow start to the 2023 season, [autotag]Jordy Bahl[/autotag] finished with a bang. She closed the season and her Oklahoma Sooners career by pitching 24.2 scoreless innings at this year’s Women’s College World Series. She finished the year with a 0.90 ERA, which helped her earn the Pitcher of the Year honor from D1Softball.

She was named Most Outstanding Player at the WCWS, and her 0.90 ERA for the season was second in the country behind Stanford’s NiJaree Canady.

Bahl performed her best when the competition was at its best. She had wins against Florida State, Tennessee, Stanford, Oklahoma State, Washington, Utah, Duke, Texas and Clemson. She was the ace of a very good pitching staff.

Bahl stunned the softball world by announcing this week she is transferring from Oklahoma back to her home state of Nebraska. Though Oklahoma returns Nicole May and Kierston Deal, and we haven’t seen anything from another signee from their 2022 recruiting class, S.J. Guerin, Oklahoma is going to miss Bahl a lot.

In her two years in Norman, Bahl was 44-2 and recorded 397 strikeouts for the Sooners. In more than 288.2 innings pitched, Bahl allowed 153 hits and 47 runs scored.

Though Bahl’s time in Norman has come to an end, her impact in Norman and on the sport of softball will continue. When the games mattered most, Bahl rose to the occasion and led the Oklahoma Sooners to their third straight national title.

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LSU softball’s Sydney Berzon named Freshman All-American

Berzon was one of the top pitchers in the nation during her first campaign with the Tigers.

Despite a frustrating end to the 2023 campaign, which saw LSU exit the Baton Rouge Regional in the final game against Louisiana, the future is bright for coach Beth Torina’s Tigers softball program.

True freshman pitcher [autotag]Sydney Berzon[/autotag] is a major reason for that. After a standout first season in Baton Rouge, she was D1Softball’s lone All-American selection from LSU, earning freshman honors.

A consensus top-20 recruit from Buffalo, New York, who played high school ball at Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Berzon appeared in 30 games in 2023, registering a 14-8 record and an impressive 1.91 earned run average.

She made 17 starts and pitched 11 complete games, and she struck out 127 batters while walking just 40 on the year.

Berzon will likely be one of the most anticipated players in the entire country next season, and Torina will hope she’s able to help the team snap its two-season super regional drought in 2024.

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Auburn softball’s place in the RPI ahead of South Carolina series

Auburn is in a good position to continue its hot streak this weekend at South Carolina.

The No. 17 Auburn Tigers are getting hot at the right time, and they look to continue their streak of good fortune this weekend at South Carolina.

Winners of two straight series against top 25 teams within the SEC, Auburn travels to Columbia this weekend in hopes of winning its’ third-straight series against a challenging foe. South Carolina enters the weekend with a 7-11 record in conference play, but they have shown signs of great play this season by winning series’ over No. 14 Florida and No. 25 Texas A&M.

In a series that has the makings to be unpredictable, it is important for the Tigers to continue backing up pitchers [autotag]Maddie Penta[/autotag] and [autotag]Shelby Lowe[/autotag] by playing great defense and recording timely hits.

Although history and numbers are not the most reliable indicator of how a series will shake out, it usually provides some clarity as to how each team has performed in several situations during a season. Ahead of this weekend’s series between Auburn and South Carolina, here is a look at the Tigers’ place in the RPI, provided by D1Softball.

Maddie Penta makes impressive climb in D1Softball’s pitcher power rankings

Auburn’s ace continues to perform at a high level this season.

It is rare for a pitcher to lead her team to victory at Rhoads Stadium in Tuscaloosa. To do it twice? It is virtually impossible.

Auburn right-hander [autotag]Maddie Penta[/autotag] was given that task last weekend, and she succeeded as she played a huge role in No. 17 Auburn‘s series win at No. 16 Alabama last weekend.

Because of this, her stock has risen in D1Softball’s pitcher power rankings. She begins the week at the No. 3 slot in the power rankings, which is a seven-spot increase from last week’s rankings.

After the Tigers dropped game one of the series to Alabama on Saturday, Penta was called upon to shut the Crimson Tide down in game two of the doubleheader. She did just that by allowing just three hits and one earned run while striking out seven batters in Auburn’s 5-1 win.

Penta got the call again on Sunday in the series finale and won a duel with Alabama ace Montana Fouts by striking out eight Crimson Tide batters while allowing six hits and an earned run in the Tigers’ 3-1 win over Alabama.

Following the Alabama series, Penta holds a 21-5 record with an ERA of 1.68. She currently has 205 strikeouts to her name, which is 27 strikeouts shy of her career-high total, which she obtained during the 2021 season.

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