Rounding Third Softball

Young Harris has removed the interim tag from Coach Jessie Homesley permanently naming her head coach. Homesley has served as interim head coach since last November. She had two other head coaching stops at Shorter and Christian Brothers before joining the staff at YHC. The Mountain Lions are 24-7 this season including 11-1 in Peach Belt Conference play.

DI Coaches are free at last… The NCAA Division I Council moved to end the Dead Period today and allow all regular recruiting activities in full starting June 1. The Dead Period to date has lasted the past 13 months. Division I Softball Coaches have not been off-campus recruiting since November 2019. The Division I Softball Recruiting Calendar will begin Thursday June 10 after the completion of the Women’s College World Series.

RTS will be in Athens starting tomorrow for a big Top 25 SEC Series between No. 10 ranked Arkansas and No. 20 Georgia. First pitch in Game 1 of the series between the Razorbacks and Bulldogs is set for 6 pm EST at Jack Turner Stadium. Follow RTS on Twitter @Rounding3rdSB for real-time in game updates.

Virginia Wesleyan (23-3-1) has taken over the No. 1 spot in this weeks NFCA Division III Top 25 Coaches Poll. The Marlins received all eight first-place votes. VWU returns to the top spot for the first time since May 2019.

Rank	Team	2021 Record	Points	Previous
1	Virginia Wesleyan (8)	23-3-1	200	2
2	Texas Lutheran	23-4	192	3
3	Linfield	25-3	184	1
4	East Texas Baptist	19-3	176	4
5	Eastern Connecticut State	18-0	168	7
6	Birmingham-Southern	23-3	160	9
7	Belhaven	23-6	152	T10
8	Salisbury	17-5	144	5
9	DePauw	17-2	136	T10
10	Moravian	10-0	128	15
11	Christopher Newport	20-8	120	6
12	St. John Fisher	11-1	110	12
13	Milwaukee School of Engineering	19-2	98	16
14	Wartburg	19-5	88	14
15	Berry	19-6	87	13
16	Saint Benedict	14-2	78	19
17	Emory & Henry	17-3	72	17
18	The College of New Jersey	8-2	68	NR
19	Randolph-Macon	10-5-1	64	20
20	Kean	14-2	48	8
21	Cortland	9-3	37	T21
22	Mount Union	19-5	25	T21
23	Hope	15-5	22	NR
24	Framingham State	17-1	18	NR
25	Stevenson	16-6	17	NR

Others receiving votes:  St. Scholastica 4, Transylvania 2, Millikin 1, Misericordia 1.

Dropped out: Alvernia, Dubuque, McMurry, Trine and Westminster (Pa.).

NCAA has confirmed to RTS that the Women’s College World Series slated for June 3-9 in Oklahoma City will indeed have spectators in attendance. It had yet to be made public on what exactly the attendance and capacity policies for softball’s premier event just seven weeks away would be. It seems NCAA will currently stay the course like other events (basketball and volleyball particularly) and allow only 25% capacity at Hall of Fame Stadium. This capacity will include teams, staffs, and facility operations. NCAA Officials stated to RTS that “Capacity is a topic currently still being discussed for WCWS. Like all of our other championships there are COVID-19 protocols to consider which vary by site depending on state and local health mandates.”

Augustana (21-3) has stayed in the stop spot in this weeks NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll. The Vikings made it unanimous picking up all 16 first-place votes.

Rank	School	Points	2021 Record	Last Poll
1	Augustana (16)	400	21-3	1
2	Valdosta State	380	25-3	3
t3	North Georgia	358	22-4	2
t3	UT Tyler	358	25-5	5
5	Indianapolis	328	25-2	7
6	Texas A&M-Commerce	311	23-10	4
7	Lincoln Memorial	306	29-4	8
8	Rollins	294	10-1	6
9	Young Harris	271	22-7	9
10	Oklahoma Christian	255	27-5	13
11	Concordia Irvine	239	17-8	14
12	West Texas A&M	204	24-10	10
13	UAH	184	21-8	15
t14	Grand Valley State	177	23-5	17
t14	Saint Anselm	177	12-2	16
16	Central Oklahoma	173	24-8	18
17	Texas A&M-Kingsville	159	22-9	12
18	Minnesota State	125	17-6	20
19	Colorado Mesa	108	23-1	19
20	West Florida	96	24-10	21
21	Winona State	84	19-6	11
22	Southern Arkansas	59	18-6	24
23	Auburn Montgomery	44	21-5	RV
24	Rogers State	30	21-11	22
25	Northwest Nazarene	23	22-8	RV

New to Poll: No. 23 Auburn Montgomery, No. 25 Northwest Nazarene

Dropped Out: No. 23 Kutztown, No. 25 Saint Leo

Receiving Votes: Shepherd (20), Lubbock Christian (14), Western Washington (8), Saint Leo (4), Trevecca Nazarene (4), Biola (1), Georgian Court (1), Kutztown (1).

Oklahoma (30-0) has now made it seven weeks in a row sitting atop the USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Coaches Poll. The Sooners are once again unanimous receiving all 32 first-place votes.

Rank	School	Points	Record	Last Week
1	Oklahoma (32)	800	30-0	1
2	UCLA	768	22-2	2
3	Alabama	702	31-5	4
4	Oregon	686	27-5	3
5	Florida	683	30-4	5
6	Washington	616	31-5	6
7	Texas	595	31-3	7
8	Arizona	585	24-5	8
9	Florida State	564	27-6	9
10	Arkansas	504	33-5	t10
11	Oklahoma State	476	32-5	12
12	Kentucky	401	28-7	t10
13	Arizona State	394	25-10	13
14	Louisiana	392	31-6	14
15	Virginia Tech	355	25-6	15
16	LSU	310	24-13	17
17	Clemson	296	26-4	18
18	Missouri	244	29-9	19
19	Tennessee	206	28-6	21
20	Georgia	204	25-8	20
21	Duke	186	27-9	16
22	Michigan	113	16-4	23
23	UCF	85	29-9	24
24	Minnesota	73	19-5	RV
25	Wichita State	61	28-5	RV

New to Poll: No. 24 Minnesota, No. 25 Wichita State.

Dropped Out: No. 22 Northwestern, No. 25 Texas State.

Receiving Votes: James Madison (38), Northwestern (16), Fresno State (12), Auburn (9), Miami University (6), Ole Miss (4), Texas A&M (4), BYU (3), Troy (3), Western Kentucky (3), Cal State Fullerton (1), Liberty (1), South Alabama (1).

Just under 100 days from the Tokyo Olympic Games, Team USA kicked off a training camp today in Vero Beach, Florida at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex. The U.S. Women’s National Team will play a four-game series against Team Italy April 15, 17, 19, 21 which is also in the Sunshine State training and competing in preparation for Tokyo, and a 10-inning exhibition contest against nationally ranked University of Central Florida on April 20. Team Italy will also travel to Ft. Myers for exhibition contests against Team Canada during their visit stateside. Team Canada has been in Florida since last month training and playing exhibitions contests against collegiate teams. Softball leads off the Tokyo Olympic Games on July 20.

A perfect game with 21 up and 21 down is one huge accomplishment; striking out all 21 batters faced is something else entirely. That is exactly what North Texas Pitcher Hope Trautwein did against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Sunday. Trautwein a senior for the Mean Green had the first perfect seven-inning game in NCAA Division I history with every out being a strikeout in the 3-0 victory. Two other pitchers have had 21 strikeouts in a seven-inning game. California’s Michele Granger did it in 1991, while Alabama’s Alexis Osorio followed 28 years later in 2018. However neither were perfect games.

The NCAA Division I Council will meet this week and are expected to vote to end the current dead period that has lasted the last 15 months by June 1. However, what that will look like is still to be decided. There are two models that will be considered. One would allow each respective sport to pick up their normal designated recruiting calendar on June 1. The other would be a hybrid model that would phase in what has been called a “modified quiet period”. While what could be “modified” about it remains to be seen, in the second instance programs would be allowed to bring PSAs to campus and hold institutional camps but would still not be allowed off-campus to recruit/evaluate prospects or work non-institutional camps. The National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) had joined a coalition of other sports governing bodies last month in requesting all recruiting activities resume starting April 15. RTS has learned however there could be “backroom” support from the larger DI institutes for the quiet period model as it would allow them to stay on-campus and bring all prospects to them while also cornering the camps market.