Rounding Third Softball

St. Thomas Aquinas College has appointed former Softball Olympian Penny Rosario Roberts to their coaching staff. Roberts played for Puerto Rico in the inaugural Olympic Games in which softball was featured in Atlanta in 1996. The assistant position at STAC is her first collegiate assignment after coaching successful club and high school programs with the Empire State Huskies and at Monroe-Woodbury High School. Roberts also works with the Collegiate Sports Advocate (CSA) group.

Southern Arkansas (2-0) has kept hold of the No. 1 spot in this week’s NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll although the Muleriders have not competed since January 30. The SAU program that has been fighting weather and COVID protocol issues still garnered 12 of the 16 first-place votes, while No. 2 North Georgia (12-0) received the other four votes.

Rank	School	Points	2021 Record	Last Poll
1	Southern Arkansas (12)	396	2-0	1
2	North Georgia (4)	388	12-0	2
3	Augustana	356	4-2	3
4	Saint Leo	333	0-0	6
5	Texas A&M-Commerce	311	4-4	7
6	Rollins	305	0-0	8
7	Concordia Irvine	290	4-1	11
8	Lincoln Memorial	283	11-0	14
9	Valdosta State	279	8-1	9
10	UT Tyler	276	6-4	4
11	Oklahoma Christian	236	8-2	10
12	Rogers State	228	4-0	16
13	Young Harris	203	8-3	5
14	UAH	180	9-3	15
15	Saint Anselm	175	0-0	13
16	Winona State	172	2-0	12
t17	Indianapolis	139	1-1	17
t17	West Texas A&M	139	12-0	RV
19	Texas A&M-Kingsville	110	5-1	18
20	Lenoir-Rhyne	90	6-2	21
21	Grand Valley State	89	3-0	20
22	West Chester	60	0-0	22
23	Angelo State	59	4-3	19
24	Tampa	34	0-0	23
25	Lubbock Christian	22	10-3	24

Dropped Out: No. 25 Saginaw Valley State

Receiving Votes: Saginaw Valley State (17), St. Cloud State (8), Newberry (6), Central Oklahoma (5), Colorado Mesa (4), Adelphi (2), Minnesota State (2), West Florida (2), Biola (1).

The National Christian College Athletic Association first Top 10 Softball Poll has been released and the defending NCCAA National Champions Erskine College set atop. The Flying Fleet won the title in 2019 as there was no championship held in 2020 due to the pandemic. EC is off to a 6-2 start in the 2021 season.

1. Erskine (6-2) 54 points
2. Warner (9-3) 51 pointes
3. Oklahoma Wesleyan (6-2) 49 points
4. Campbellsville (5-5) 45 points
5. Cedarville (3-1) 38 points
6. Southwestern Christian (4-4) 25 points
7. Mid-America Christian (1-1) 21 points
8. Central Christian (3-3) 16 points
9. Columbia International (7-7) 14 points
10. Concordia (2-6) 9 points

Also receiving votes: Ottawa Arizona 7 points, Kentucky Christian 1 point

After a dominating offensive performance putting up 66 runs over the weekend in Arizona, the Oklahoma Sooners (12-0) have taken over the No. 1 spot in this week’s USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Coaches Poll. OU picked up 27 of the 32 first-place votes while the other five votes went to No. 3 Alabama (14-0) and No. 4 UCLA (6-1).

Rank	School	Points	Record	Last Week
1	Oklahoma (27)	792	12-0	2
2	Arizona	736	10-0	3
3	Alabama (3)	732	14-0	4
4	UCLA (2)	730	6-1	1
5	Florida	664	12-0	6
6	Oregon	636	9-0	8
7	Texas	598	8-0	7
8	Washington	576	13-2	5
9	Oklahoma State	549	13-1	10
10	Kentucky	475	14-0	12
11	Arizona State	445	10-1	13
12	Louisiana	441	9-3	9
13	LSU	432	10-5	11
14	Duke	356	12-1	16
15	Virginia Tech	355	7-2	14
16	Florida State	336	10-3	15
17	South Carolina	244	8-2	18
18	Missouri	243	12-2	20
19	Georgia	204	9-2	19
20	Arkansas	191	11-2	21
21	Michigan	149	4-2	17
22	UCF	127	9-2	22
23	Iowa State	110	13-2	25
24	Auburn	82	10-1	RV
25	Tennessee	49	12-1	RV

New to Poll: No. 24 Auburn, No. 25 Tennessee

Dropped Out: No. 23 Baylor, No. 24 Minnesota

Receiving Votes: Clemson (31), Illinois (25), Northwestern (24), Baylor (22), Southern Illinois (11), Stanford (7), James Madison (5), Liberty (4), Ole Miss (4), Mississippi State (4), Utah (4), Minnesota (3), Notre Dame (3), Troy (1).

One of the first big Division II matchups of the year had a very fitting big city location. No. 10 ranked Oklahoma Christian met No. 11 ranked Concordia-Irvine for a battle of top DII programs this weekend in Las Vegas. The 3-game series was played at Faith Lutheran High School in the City of Lights. CUI put up some major offensive numbers winning the first two games 9-4 (Friday) and 7-4 (Saturday) to also secure the series win. OC salvaged the last game of the series on Saturday by the score of 2-1 in a more pitching and defensive inspired contest.

University of Michigan-Dearborn has suspended 20 of its softball athletes after they held a team practice at a local church gym. UMD student-athletes believe the move was in retaliation for speaking out on their season being cancelled for the second straight year due to pandemic concerns. Two days after the cancellation the Board of Trustees reversed their decision on February 18 and reinstated the 2021 season seemingly based on the public outrage it produced. The two-game suspensions will be “staggered” so the team can still compete. The suspensions were first reported by the site Click on Detroit.

USA Softball has announced that the Women’s National Team will host a training camp March 3-18 at the Eddie C. Moore Softball Complex in Clearwater, Florida as the team continues preparations for Tokyo Olympic Games this summer. Including in this camp will be a three-game series against the National Squad from Mexico March 8-10. The series between USA and Mexico is being rescheduled after inclement weather in Texas earlier this month forced its cancellation. A limited number of fans will be allowed into EC Moore for the contests.

RTS will be back in Orlando tomorrow for the start of a three game series between No. 22 ranked Central Florida and McNeese State. First pitch for Game 1 of the series is set for 4 pm EST at the UCF Softball Complex. Game 2 will follow at 6 pm. The final game of the series is scheduled for 1 pm on Saturday. Follow RTS on Twitter @Rounding3rdSB for real-time in game updates.

Dallas Christian College has named Pat Hallahan the programs first head coach. He is tasked with building the Crusaders program that starts competition in the 2022 season. Hallahan has a background in both baseball and softball on the collegiate, high school, and club levels. His most recent appointment was at Finlandia University where he worked in recruiting with both the softball and baseball programs.

Southern Arkansas (2-0) has kept hold of the No. 1 spot in this weeks NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll. Despite not having competed since January 30, the Muleriders picked up 13 of 16 votes while No. 2 North Georgia (10-0) closed the gap slightly picking up the other three votes.

Rank	School	Points	2021 Record	Last Poll
1	Southern Arkansas (13)	399	2-0	1
2	North Georgia (3)	387	10-0	2
3	Augustana	363	0-0	3
4	UT Tyler	351	2-0	4
5	Young Harris	336	8-1	5
6	Saint Leo	320	0-0	6
7	Texas A&M-Commerce	308	3-1	7
8	Rollins	282	0-0	8
9	Valdosta State	264	5-1	10
10	Oklahoma Christian	253	4-0	12
11	Concordia Irvine	240	2-0	11
12	Winona State	223	2-0	13
13	Saint Anselm	185	0-0	14
14	Lincoln Memorial	180	7-0	20
15	UAH	166	7-2	17
16	Rogers State	149	0-0	18
17	Indianapolis	145	0-0	19
18	Texas A&M-Kingsville	130	5-1	23
19	Angelo State	105	2-2	9
20	Grand Valley State	97	3-0	24
21	Lenoir-Rhyne	78	4-2	15
22	West Chester	68	0-0	21
23	Tampa	51	0-0	22
24	Lubbock Christian	44	9-2	25
25	Saginaw Valley State	25	5-0	RV

Receiving Votes: Minnesota State (15), West Texas A&M (8), Francis Marion (6), St. Cloud State (5), Metropolitan State University of Denver (4), Southern Indiana (4), West Florida (4), Central Oklahoma (3), Adelphi (2), Biola (2).