NCAA Baseball and Softball Discussion Thread

[Mr. PrettyGood]

We're nearly halfway through the softball season and it seems like a good time to take a look at the RPI. https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/softball/d1/ncaa-womens-softball-rpi

Bear in mind that the RPI is not the be all-end all in the eyes of the selection committee, but 33 of the 64 teams in the playoffs will be selected at large, so some good information can be gathered from this index.

 

[Mr. PrettyGood]

Halfway through the season, D1Baseball.com has released their first field of 64 projection. I won't go into the details of how the playoffs are formatted (more complex than a single elimination tournament) right now, but 64 teams, including all conference champions get in. Usually, but not always, the top seed in a region is the host.

The following are the projected top 16, who would host regionals.
UCLA
Oregon
Texas
Coastal Carolina
Georgia Tech
Florida St
Mississippi St
Florida
Virginia
Alabama
North Carolina
Georgia
West Virginia
Southern Cal
Southern Miss
Oregon St

For the whole projection click here.

 

[Mr. PrettyGood]

The Southeastern Louisiana softball team has a 20 game winning streak. Stephen F. Austin (I recall telling somebody I would keep track of this team) is 22-19, but only 6-9 in the Southland Conference.

 

[Mr. PrettyGood]

Georgia Tech was down 10-0 to Wake Forest after 2 innings. Final score:
Wake 11
Tech 14

This is Georgia Tech's biggest comeback of the century.

 

[Mr. PrettyGood]

Some blue bloods are in major trouble. 4 of the 5 longest NCAA Tournament streaks are in jeopardy.

Vanderbilt has the longest streak of NCAA Tournament appearances (19 years) and they are on the bubble.
LSU has made the last 13 tournaments and they pretty much need to win the conference tournament to get in.
Oklahoma St has made 12 consecutive tournaments and they're on the bubble.
Dallas Baptist is a bubble team and they've made the 11.

The second longest streak belongs to Florida (17 years) .They're doing well enough to host a regional (top 16 teams).

 

[Mr. PrettyGood]

Softball has stated conference tournaments. Each conference champion receives entry into the NCAA Tournament, so some of them have very high stakes.

 

[Mr. PrettyGood]

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/48734760/college-softball-2026-wcws-ncaa-tournament-watch-schedule-scores

The softball playoffs have been announced. Think of this portion as 16 separate 4 team double elimination tournaments. They are the regionals.

Next week will come the super regionals: 8 series, each of which are best of 3.

The Women’s College World Series is in Oklahoma City and consists of 2 double elimination tournaments. The winners face off in a 2 out of 3 game series to determine the national champions.

The men’s tournament (starts in three weeks) uses the same format, except the CWS is in Omaha instead of Oklahoma City.

 

[Mr. PrettyGood]

Stetson pulls off an early upset knocking off #9 seed Florida St. I'd like to remind everybody that this stage is double elimination, so the Lady Seminoles are not eliminated.

 

[Mr. PrettyGood]

Texas Tech was down by 8 runs in the bottom of the 7th (their opponent, Ole Miss had scored 4 in in the top of the inning) and came back to force extra innings, eventually winning the game 10-9 in 8 innings. Ole Miss will play an elimination game against the winner of Marist vs. Boston University this evening.

 

[Mr. PrettyGood]

The following regional finals are scheduled for today. The first team listed will be out of the losers' bracket and must win two games against their opponents. Locations are in parentheses.

USC-Upstate vs. Alabama (Tuscaloosa)
Virginia Tech vs. LSU (Baton Rouge)
South Carolina vs. UCLA (LA)
Florida St vs. UCF (Tallahassee)
South Florida vs. Arkansas (Fayetteville)
Duke vs. Arizona (Durham)
Grand Canyon vs. Nebraska (Lincoln)
Stanford vs. Oklahoma St (Stillwater)
Michigan vs. Oklahoma (Norman)
Saint Mary's vs. Mississippi St (Starkville)
Georgia Tech vs. Florida (Gainesville)
Ole Miss vs. Texas Tech (Lubbock)
Baylor vs. Texas (Austin)
Texas A&M vs. Arizona St (College Station)
Virginia vs. Tennessee (Knoxville)
Clemson vs. Georgia (Athens)

All of the top seeds (also the hosts) are still alive, but a few of them are only one loss away from elimination.


Most baseball conferences will begin their tournaments this week.

 

[Mr. PrettyGood]

This weekend will begin the softball super regionals. These are 2 out of 3 game series hosted by the higher seed.

Georgia @ Tennessee*
Oklahoma St @ Nebraska*
LSU @ Alabama
Arizona St @ Texas
UCF @ UCLA
Duke @ Arkansas
Mississippi St @ Oklahoma
Texas Tech @ Florida

*These two series start on Thursday. The others start on Friday.

 

[Mr. PrettyGood]

Arkansas has beaten Duke 14-5 in game one of their super regional series. This marks the Lady Hogs' 4th consecutive win in the postseason, each of which has come by way of the run rule (leading by 8 or more runs after 5 innings).

 

[Mr. PrettyGood]

8 teams have made it to Oklahoma City. There will be two double elimination tournaments. The winners of each bracket will face off in a 2 out of 3 game series to determine the national champions of softball. Both brackets will start on Thursday.

Bracket 1
Texas Tech vs. Mississippi St
Texas vs. Tennessee

Bracket 2
Alabama vs. UCLA
Nebraska vs. Arkansas

 

[Mr. PrettyGood]

In baseball, the field of 64 is set. Each round is played the same way as the softball rounds.

Athens Regional
Liberty vs. Boston College
Long Island vs. Georgia

Atlanta Regional
Illinois-Chicago vs. Georgia Tech
The Citadel vs. Oklahoma

Auburn Regional
Milwaukee vs. Auburn
NC St vs. UCF

Austin Regional
Holy Cross vs. Texas
UT Tarleton vs. UCSB

Chapel Hill Regional
East Carolina vs. Tennessee
VCU vs. UNC

College Station Regional
Lamar vs. Texas A&M
Texas St vs. USC

Eugene Regional
Washington St vs. Oregon St
Yale vs. Oregon

Gainesville Regional
Rider vs. Florida
Troy vs. Miami (FL)

Hattiesburg Regional
Little Rock vs. Southern Miss
Jacksonville St vs. Virginia

Lawrence Regional
Northeastern vs. Kansas
Missouri St vs. Arkansas

Lincoln Regional
South Dakota St vs. Nebraska
Arizona St vs. Ole Miss

Los Angeles Regional
St. Mary's vs. UCLA
Cal Poly vs. Virginia Tech

Morgantown Regional
Kentucky vs. Wake Forest
Binghamton vs. West Virginia

Starkville Regiona
Lipscomb vs. Mississippi St
Louisiana vs. Cincinnati

Tallahasse Regional
St. John's vs. Florida St
Northern Illinois vs. Coastal Caolina

Tuscaloosa Regional
USC Upstate vs. Oklahoma St
Alabama St vs. Alabama

 

[Mr. PrettyGood]

Tennessee and East Carolina are going into the 12th inning. Bear in mind that losing the first game in this double elimination tournament means you have to play 5 games to win and advance. A team that wins the first game may advance to the super regionals in three games (going 3-0), and most of these teams only have a 3 starter rotation, so they're fighting like this for a reason.