Two weeks ago, all Division 1 softball teams started their season and there were many upsets, lots of top teams dropped in the rankings and a team that was in the top 5 most of last year, is now at the number 19 spot, almost out of the top 25.
(NCAA)
NFCA Division I Leadoff Classic- I was super excited to watch this series of games. There were many teams that are exciting to watch that were featured in this tournament, such as the St. Johns Red Storm and the Kansas Jayhawks. The part that was even cooler is that I know someone personally from St. Johns that plays there and is really good. There were some teams that absolutely dominated the tournament such as the Oregon Ducks who over a 5 game span has a total of 3 run rules and outscored their opponents 28-1.
Puerto Vallarta College Challenge- This tournament was held in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and there were even more teams from the Top 25 in this tournament such as the number 1 Oklahoma Sooners, the number 6 Washington Huskies, and number 10 Duke Blue Devils. I didn’t get to watch as many of these games because they were all on FloSoftball, but I was able to watch separate streams for my favorite college team, the Washington Huskies. But the story that came out of this tournament was Jordy Bahl. After her transfer to Nebraska, which is where she is from, everyone was expecting her to go out and dominate the circle for the Corn Huskers. The former Oklahoma Sooner played well, but only for so long before she sustained an injury against the Huskies, a torn ACL that took her out for the entire season. She is going to redshirt so she still has two more years of eligibility, but that is tough news for Nebraska to swallow.
Shriners Children’s St. Pete Clearwater Invitational-The St. Pete Clearwater Invitational is one of the biggest publicized softball event of the year. There are only 6 teams out of the 16 in this invitational that are not in the top 25. There are many great teams that participate in this invitational such as the LSU Tigers, Tennessee Lady Volunteers, and the Stanford Cardinal. One of the stories out of this invitational is the Stanford Cardinal. They have a roster full of girls that can hit bombs and that roster included San Diego native, Ava Gall who attended El Capitan High School. Gall has started 8 total games out of the 9 the Cardinal have played. Along with girls like Gall that can absolutely rake, they have the pitching to back up their offense with pitchers like NiJaree Canady. She helped lead the Cardinal to the Womens College World Series last year as a freshman. Another story out St. Pete is the Georgia Bulldogs, they also are just like the Stanford Cardinal. They have many girls that can hit and also have the pitching to back up their offense. There are girls on the roster such as NFL QB Justin Fields sister, Jaiden Fields. Fields has put up a .311 average over her five years at UGA and her season isn’t even over yet. Unfortunately, this weekend full of games, was cancelled due to the rain in Florida.
As these first two weekends of top Division 1 softball wrap up, there was also some movement in the Top 25 rankings. UCLA who is known as a powerhouse in college softball dropped from number 10 to number 19 after two major losses, one to Oklahoma State who is the number 8 team and Texas who is the number 2 team. At some point the Bruins were out of the top 25 but they were able to make their way back in.
Now that the first to weeks of D1 college softball have wrapped up, all softball fans get to look forward to the rest of the season and hope their team makes it to the Womens College World Series.
