Rounding Third Softball

Texas Lutheran (28-4) continues as the No. 1 team in the land in this week’s NFCA Division III Top 25 Coaches Poll. The Bulldogs coming off their conference championship win, await selection in the NCAA Postseason for the opportunity to defend their 2019 National Championship.

Rank	Team	2021 Record	Points	Previous
1	Texas Lutheran (8)	28-4	200	1
T2	DePauw	32-2	192	3
	Virginia Wesleyan	37-5-1	192	2
4	Moravian	28-0	176	4
5	Birmingham-Southern	29-5	168	5
6	Eastern Connecticut State	27-2	160	6
7	East Texas Baptist	30-5	152	8
8	Linfield	36-7	144	11
9	Salisbury	24-7	136	T12
10	Berry	25-8	128	10
11	Christopher Newport	28-12	113	T12
12	St. John Fisher	26-3	109	14
13	Belhaven	30-10	99	7
14	The College of New Jersey	21-3	95	16
15	Emory & Henry	26-7	81	9
16	Mount Union	32-6	79	18
17	Randolph-Macon	14-7-1	55	17
18	Rowan	27-7	54	21
19	Coe	23-11	48	NR
20	Rochester	29-8	37	22
21	St. Olaf	22-4	35	19
22	Trine	30-8	33	NR
23	Transylvania	26-8	31	NR
24	Wartburg	26-8	24	15
25	Concordia (Wis.)	31-8	20	20

Others receiving votes:  Misericordia 14, Milwaukee School of Engineering 14, Tufts 8, Benedictine 4, Millikin 1, Saint Benedict 1.

Dropped out: Alvernia, Aurora, Bethel (Minn.), George Fox, Hope, Ithaca, Mount St. Joseph, St. Scholastica and Williams.

For the sixth straight week Augustana (40-4) has kept the top spot in the NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll. The Vikings received all 16 first-place votes.

Rank	School	Points	2021 Record	Last Poll
1	Augustana (16)	400	40-4	1
2	North Georgia	380	36-5	3
3	Auburn Montgomery	361	39-5	4
4	Oklahoma Christian	354	36-6	6
5	Lincoln Memorial	327	36-6	5
6	UT Tyler	313	33-7	2
7	Indianapolis	311	43-6	7
8	Young Harris	273	31-9	10
9	Valdosta State	268	34-8	8
10	Texas A&M-Commerce	260	28-15	12
11	Concordia Irvine	246	26-11	11
12	West Texas A&M	220	32-10	9
13	Grand Valley State	209	37-7	13
14	Central Oklahoma	191	34-10	15
15	Colorado Mesa	163	34-2	16
16	UAH	153	31-12	14
17	Minnesota State	150	34-7	17
18	Saint Anselm	147	27-4	18
19	Southern Arkansas	103	26-7	22
20	Angelo State	80	31-11	21
21	Rollins	75	19-2	23
22	Georgian Court	63	33-4	24
23	Winona State	56	33-10	20
24	Biola	35	19-13	25
25	Kutztown	24	31-11	RV

New to Poll: No. 25 Kutztown

Dropped Out: No. 19 West Florida

Receiving Votes: Tampa (14), Northwest Nazarene (12), Central Missouri (4), Texas A&M University-Kingsville (4), West Florida (2), Rogers State (1), West Liberty (1).

Seton Hall Head Coach Paige Smith has announced her resignation after leading the Pirates for the last nine seasons. Smith took the reins of the program in 2013 amassing a 165-247-1 record. SHU had 17 All-BIG EAST selections during her tenure.

RTS will be at the ACC Championship starting tomorrow and throughout the week at Ulmer Stadium on the campus of the University of Louisville. Action starts with two games on Wednesday as No. 8 seed Syracuse takes on No. 9 seed Georgia Tech to lead off the event at 1:00 pm EST. No. 7 seed North Carolina State follows matching up with rival and No. 10 seed North Carolina at 3:30 pm EST. Follow RTS on Twitter @Rounding3rdSB for real-time in-game updates throughout the week at the ACC Championship.

Seton Hall Head Coach Paige Smith has announced her resignation after leading the Pirates for the last nine seasons. Smith took the reins of the program in 2013 amassing a 165-247-1 record. SHU had 17 All-BIG EAST selections during her tenure.

Oklahoma’s (42-2) grip slipped a bit in this week’s USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Coaches Poll. The newly crowned Big 12 Regular-Season Champions still checked in as the top team in the land as they took two of three in the Bedlam Rivalry over the weekend to claim the title and pickup 25 of the polls first-place votes. No. 2 UCLA (38-3) started to gain however picking up six of the top votes, while No. 3 Alabama (42-7) picked up one.

Rank	School	Points	Record	Last Week
1	Oklahoma (25)	793	42-2	1
2	UCLA (6)	773	38-3	2
3	Alabama (1)	724	42-7	3
4	Florida	711	40-8	4
5	Washington	671	39-9	5
6	Arkansas	588	40-8	8
7	Florida State	587	38-9-1	6
8	Arizona	567	35-10	7
9	Oklahoma State	566	40-8	9
10	Texas	484	38-9	11
11	Oregon	468	33-15	12
12	Arizona State	465	32-14	10
13	Clemson	426	40-5	13
14	Louisiana	356	40-10	14
15	Missouri	342	37-14	15
16	LSU	313	31-18	16
17	Kentucky	300	38-12	18
18	Michigan	257	32-6	19
19	Tennessee	234	39-12	17
20	Virginia Tech	192	32-12	20
21	Duke	183	39-10	21
22	JMU	97	31-1	24
23	Minnesota	82	26-10	23
24	Wichita State	66	37-11-1	25
25	Liberty	36	39-13	RV

New to Poll: No. 25 Liberty

Dropped Out: No. 22 Georgia

Receiving Votes: Georgia (25), Notre Dame (23), Ole Miss (21), Fresno State (15), Mississippi State (13), UCF (7), Miami University (6), Boston University (5), USF (3), Cal State Fullerton (1).

Ahead of the championship tournament that starts tomorrow in Louisville, the Atlantic Coast Conference has announced its softball season award winners for 2021. Regular-season champion Clemson received three of the five postseason awards. Two of those awards, Player and Freshman of the Year, go to the same individual for the first time ever in a season with Clemson’s Valerie Cagle taking home both. Clemson Coach John Rittman was named Coach of the Year for leading the Tigers to the ACC Regular-Season Championship in only the programs second year of competition. The awards were rounded out by Pitcher of the Year Keely Rochard from Virginia Tech and Defensive Player of the Year Sydney Sherrill from Florida State.

RTS has confirmed that Nicholls State and head coach Angel Santiago have parted ways. Santiago coached the Colonels for 10 seasons winning the Southland Conference Championship in 2018 and was voted conference coach of the year twice in 2016 and 2018. The softball program had shown steady improvement in Santiago’s tenure despite battling various budget shortfalls, equity concerns, and Title IX issues the institute recognized, yet failed to address that seemingly had major ramifications on the growth of the program. Santiago was 255-229 overall with the Colonels. This season Nicholls finished 12-28 and 5-22 in Southland play.

Arguably the world’s top pitcher has made her return. Yukiko Ueno returned to the circle in the Japanese Softball League after a month out from injury with a muscular strain in the right side of her body. She sustained the injury in the leagues opening weekend in early April. Ueno pitched this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday for her Bic Camera Bee Queen team. The squad sits atop the league standings with a 8-3 record as the Japanese Softball League now breaks until September as the Japanese National Team starts final preparations for the Tokyo Olympic Games. The already rescheduled games actually taking place however, are now considered in serious jeopardy as Japan deals with a fourth wave in the pandemic and mounting pressure from the countries population to cancel or once again reschedule the Olympic Games that begin in July.

Saint Francis clinched the Northeast Conference Regular Season Championship on Sunday finishing a conference sweep of Long Island University. The Red Flash took the doubleheader from the Sharks 11-0 and 7-5. With the championship SFU also secured the top seed for the NEC Tournament that they will now host later this week.