Rounding Third Softball

NAIA has announced the postseason selections for their National Championship Opening Round. 40 teams were seeded at 10 sites around the country in four-team, double-elimination brackets to be played May 15-17. The winners of each site will advance to the NAIA World Series in Columbus, GA May 25-31. The complete selections and pairings can be found at https://www.naia.org/…/2022-23/releases/2023_OR_Schedule

Kent State and Head Coach Eric Oakley have parted ways. Oakley coached the Golden Flashes for eight seasons and 201 victories. He won MAC Championships early in his tenure in 2016 and 2017.

Boo De Oliveira is out as head coach at Purdue. De Oliveira coached the Boilermakers since 2017. During that time she compiled a record of 150-202, falling short of qualifying for the NCAA Postseason each year.

Rounding Third Softball Postseason Coverage powered by Decker Sports starts tomorrow as we will be onsite at the Southern Conference Championship in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Three games on tap Wednesday at Jim Frost Stadium starting at 10 am ET with No. 4 seed Western Carolina and No. 5 seed Mercer. No. 2 seed Samford and No. 7 seed East Tennessee State will follow at 12:30 pm ET. The final game of the day at 3 pm ET will feature No. 3 seed Furman and No. 6 seed Tennessee-Chattanooga.

Check-in on Twitter @Rounding3rdSB and on all RTS Social Media platforms for live in-game action and updates from first pitch to last of the SoCon Championship.

Sources have confirmed to RTS that Marc Gillis will not return as head coach at the University of Detroit Mercy. Gillis just completed his fourth season at the helm of the Titans after being promoted from within the coaching staff in the summer of 2019. He compiled a record of 14-93 overall.

The four at the top remain unchanged in this week’s D1 Softball Top 25 Poll.

Rank	Team	Overall Record	Record Last Week	Previous Rank
1	Oklahoma	49-1	4-0	1
2	UCLA	50-4	3-0	2
3	Florida State	47-8	4-0	3
4	Tennessee	41-8	2-2	4
5	Washington	37-11	2-1	11
6	Duke	43-9	0-0	9
7	Georgia	39-12	1-2	6
8	Stanford	39-12	1-2	8
9	LSU	40-14	2-1	15
10	Clemson	45-8	0-0	10
11	Texas	40-12-1	1-3	5
12	Oklahoma State	41-13	0-4	7
13	Baylor	39-15	3-0	20
14	Arkansas	38-16	2-2	12
15	Auburn	39-16	2-1	13
16	Alabama	38-17	2-1	14
17	Utah	33-13	3-0	21
18	Northwestern	35-11	2-1	17
19	Central Arkansas	39-9	3-0	19
20	Oregon	35-14	0-3	16
21	Wichita State	43-9	0-1	18
22	Texas A&M	33-18	1-0	23
23	Minnesota	36-16	3-0	25
24	Louisville	35-17	0-3	24
25	Cal State Fullerton	33-16	3-0	NR
Dropped Out
	Florida	35-19	1-3	22

The NCAA has announced the Field of 64 for the Division II Softball Championship. Four teams will participate at each of the 16 regional sites in a double-elimination competition. The winner of each regional will advance to a best-of-three Super Regional.

Atlantic 1 Region at East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania

1. *East Stroudsburg (38-16)

2. West Chester (36-17)

3. West Virginia Wesleyan (43-15)

4. Bowie State (35-14)

Atlantic 2 Region at Charleston, West Virginia

1. Shippensburg (32-18)

2. *Charleston (West Virginia) (40-9)

3. Kutztown (29-24)

4. Davis & Elkins (29-26)

Central 1 Region at Edmund, Oklahoma

1. *Central Oklahoma (47-6)

2. Harding (44-12)

3. Oklahoma Baptist (43-10)

4. Southeastern Oklahoma (33-25)

Central 2 Region at Joplin, Missouri

1. *Missouri Southern State (40-13)

2. Rogers State (43-12)

3. Southern Arkansas (41-13)

4. Minnesota Duluth (40-11)

East 1 Region at Garden City, New York

1. *Adelphi (43-6)

2. Bentley (28-14-1)

3. Caldwell (35-17)

4. St. Thomas Aquinas (31-16)

East 2 Region at Wilmington, Delaware

1. *Wilmington (Delaware) (39-13)

2. Georgian Court (37-19)

3. Franklin Pierce (32-18)

4. Pace (26-23)

Midwest 1 Region at Indianapolis, Indiana

1. *UIndy (50-8)

2. Lewis (36-18)

3. Illinois Springfield (33-22)

4. Hillsdale (35-19)

Midwest 2 Region at Allendale, Michigan

1. *Grand Valley State (40-6)

2. Saginaw Valley State (35-14)

3. Ohio Dominican (34-20)

4. Missouri-St. Louis (33-20)

South 1 Region at Tampa, Florida

1. *Tampa (40-3)

2. Alabama Huntsville (44-9)

3. Mississippi College (42-10)

4. Tuskegee (25-20)

South 2 Region at in St. Leo, Florida

1. *Saint Leo (42-10)

2. Nova Southeastern (38-13)

3. West Alabama (41-12)

4. Auburn Montgomery (35-17)

South Central 1 Region at Tyler, Texas

1. *UT Tyler (54-4)

2. Oklahoma Christian (36-15)

3. Lubbock Christian (39-15)

4. St. Edward’s (27-26)

South Central 2 Region at Canyon, Texas

1. Colorado Christian (55-4)

2. *West Texas A&M (47-6)

3. Cameron (31-23)

4. St. Mary’s (Texas) (31-25)

Southeast 1 Region at Dahlonega, Georgia

1. *North Georgia (54-6)

2. Columbus State (44-14)

3. Lincoln Memorial (36-23)

4. King (Tennessee) (35-22)

Southeast 2 Region at Wingate, North Carolina

1. *Wingate (44-14)

2. Lenoir-Rhyne (36-12)

3. Carson-Newman (31-16)

4. Francis Marion (41-11)

West 1 Region at Irvine, California

1. *Concordia University Irvine (45-10)

2. Northwest Nazarene (36-15)

3. Cal State San Bernardino (31-20)

4. Biola (28-22)

West 2 Region at Rohnert Park, California

1. Cal State Dominguez Hills (35-17)

2. *Sonoma State (35-13)

3. Cal State San Marcos (27-19)

4. Azusa Pacific (32-24)

*Denotes host institution.

Jodi Hermanek will not return as head coach at Pittsburgh. Hermanek spent five seasons leading the Panthers and compiled a 76-134 overall record. The 2023 Pitt team went 24-25 and 6-17 in ACC play.

Utah State Head Coach Steve Johnson walked off the field for the final time over the weekend a winner with a 7-2 victory over San Jose State. Johnson has announced the 2023 season would be his last in softball as he will be retiring from coaching. He spent 27 years in the sport, with the last 10 coming at USU. Johnson also had stops at Auburn, UNC Pembroke, and South Dakota State.

Saginaw Valley State won its second consecutive Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Championship Sunday to punch their ticket to the NCAA Postseason. The Cardinals downed Wisconsin-Parkside 12-2 in five innings in the championship final.