Rounding Third Softball

Down goes Goliath… Georgia has knocked off No. 1 ranked Oklahoma 7-6 in extra innings in Athens. The Sooners were 33-0 going into today’s doubleheader with the No. 21 Bulldogs and had previously looked as if they could run the table.

Harding Coach Phil Berry’s 2021 season will be his last. Berry will be retiring at seasons end after leading the program for the last eight years and compiling a 253-163 record. Harding restarted their program in 2014 and had six winning seasons under his leadership including a 58 win campaign in 2017. The Bison are currently 24-11 this season and 15-9 in Great American Conference play.

The invincible force moves on. After beating a very good and highly ranked Texas team like they owed them money over the weekend, Oklahoma (33-0) comes in at No. 1 in this week’s USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Coaches Poll for the eighth straight week. The Sooners once again made it unanimous garnering all 32 first-place votes.

Rank	School	Points	Record	Last Week
1	Oklahoma (32)	800	33-0	1
2	UCLA	768	25-2	2
3	Florida	717	32-6	5
4	Washington	692	34-6	6
5	Alabama	673	33-7	3
6	Oregon	613	28-8	4
7	Florida State	597	31-6	9
8	Arkansas	564	36-5	10
9	Texas	544	31-6	7
10	Arizona	503	27-8	8
11	Oklahoma State	487	35-5	11
12	Arizona State	472	28-11	13
13	Louisiana	371	34-7	14
14	Kentucky	359	30-10	12
15	Virginia Tech	351	28-7	15
16	Clemson	331	32-4	17
17	LSU	303	26-14	16
18	Missouri	243	32-10	18
19	Tennessee	226	32-7	19
20	Michigan	164	21-4	22
21	Georgia	148	27-11	20
22	Duke	117	30-10	21
23	Wichita State	114	32-5-1	25
24	Minnesota	87	22-6	24
t25	James Madison	41	22-1	RV
t25	UCF	41	30-12-1	23

New to Poll: t-No. 25 James Madison

Dropped Out: None.

Receiving Votes: Auburn (23), Fresno State (12), Northwestern (11), Miami University (10), Texas state (9), Liberty (4), BYU (2), Western Kentucky (2), Ole Miss (1).

Indiana Wesleyan Coach Steve Babinski recently picked up his 600th career coaching victory. The milestone came in a doubleheader sweep of Goshen. Babinski has coached IWU since 2012 after coaching at MidAmerica Nazarene from 2005-2011. The Wildcats are currently 34-6 on the season and ranked No. 10 in the latest NAIA Top 25 Poll.

Sources have confirmed to RTS that Furman Coach Wally King has been put on suspension by the institute. King did not make the trip with the squad to East Tennessee State this weekend for their Southern Conference Series. He is in his third season as head coach of the Paladins.

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.”