Rounding Third Softball

Last year Monica Abbott announced her storied career in the Japanese Professional League would end after the conclusion of that season. Today Abbott decided to call it a career all over the Globe.

Abbott, one of the most storied players in the sport, announced her retirement via Social Media today. The 37-year-old played four of the greatest collegiate seasons on record at the University of Tennessee holding career records for victories with 189 and strikeouts with 2,440. She spent the past 20 years playing professionally and with Team USA around the world winning multiple World and Professional Championships.

For the first time in nearly two years Division I Softball has a new No. 1.

UCLA (12-0) has taken over the top spot from now No. 2 ranked Oklahoma (8-1). The Sooners had been the No. 1 team in every poll presented by D1 Softball since February 22, 2021. OU dropped just their eighth game in the past three seasons on Sunday against No. 23 Baylor (8-1).

Rank	Team	Overall Record	Record Last Week	Previous Rank
1	UCLA	12-0	6-0	2
2	Oklahoma	8-1	3-1	1
3	Oklahoma State	8-1	5-0	5
4	Florida	10-0	7-0	3
5	Clemson	10-0	5-0	6
6	Alabama	6-2	4-1	12
7	Florida State	9-3	5-2	7
8	Stanford	8-2	5-0	14
9	Washington	9-1	5-0	10
10	Arkansas	8-2	3-2	4
11	Tennessee	6-1	3-1	9
12	LSU	10-0	5-0	17
13	Duke	7-3	4-1	20
14	Georgia	7-3	2-3	8
15	Virginia Tech	7-3	2-3	11
16	Kentucky	6-1-1	4-1	15
17	Texas	8-1-1	6-0	16
18	Auburn	9-1	5-0	23
19	Texas A&M	9-2	3-2	25
20	Arizona	7-3	2-3	18
21	Maryland	8-1	4-0	24
22	Northwestern	4-4	2-2	13
23	Baylor	8-1	4-0	NR
24	UCF	5-5	2-4	19
25	Missouri	9-2	6-0	NR
Dropped Out
	Louisiana	5-5	1-5	21
	North Texas	7-2	3-2	22

Down goes No. 1…

Oklahoma fell today to Big 12 rival Baylor in a non-conference game at the Getterman Classic in Waco. The Bears downed the Sooners 4-3. The early season loss is foreign to the two-time defending National Champions, as it was April before the Sooners lost their first game last season.

RTS starts our 2023 season coverage this weekend in Atlanta at the ACC/Big 10 Challenge. Host Georgia Tech welcomes Big 10 members Illinois and Wisconsin to the ATL along with fellow ACC member Louisville. Action starts Friday at 1 pm EST between the Cardinals and Illini. Check-in on Facebook, on Twitter @Rounding3rdSB, and on Instagram @roundingthirdsoftball for live in-game action and updates throughout the weekend.

RTS has learned that Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Volunteer Assistant Orlando Salinas will serve as the interim head coach at Texas A&M-Kingsville. Salinas was in his second season of work on the coaching staff with the Islanders.

Texas A&M-Kingsville Officials had also engaged former Javelinas Head Coach Blake Miller. The coaching veteran Miller had a run with TAMUK between 2008-10, before going on to head coaching jobs at Virginia and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

For those wanting to attend softball’s top event of the year in the Women’s College World Series, get ready to pay a pretty penny.

As pre-purchased all-session tickets started hitting AXS accounts last night, those same tickets have already hit the secondary market. Tickets in the backstop/dugout/baseline/upper deck areas are going for between $200-$350 PER ticket for each session (two games per session). Even the beloved “cheap seats” in the outfield of Hall of Fame Stadium in OKC once obtainable for $15 per session, are now showing up on the secondary markets for $150 per session/seat.

This weeks D1 Softball Top 25 has been released, and to no real surprise Oklahoma (5-0) still sits atop after an undefeated opening weekend. They are followed by UCLA (6-0) in the second spot. Florida (3-0), Arkansas (5-0) and Oklahoma State (3-1) round out the Top 5.

Rank	Team	Overall Record	Record Last Week	Previous Rank
1	Oklahoma	5-0	5-0	1
2	UCLA	6-0	6-0	2
3	Florida	3-0	3-0	5
4	Arkansas	5-0	5-0	8
5	Oklahoma State	3-1	3-1	3
6	Clemson	5-0	5-0	9
7	Florida State	3-1	3-1	4
8	Georgia	5-0	5-0	10
9	Tennessee	3-0	3-0	12
10	Washington	4-1	4-1	21
11	Virginia Tech	5-0	5-0	13
12	Alabama	2-1	2-1	6
13	Northwestern	2-2	2-2	7
14	Stanford	3-2	3-2	11
15	Kentucky	2-0-1	2-0-1	16
16	Texas	2-1-1	2-1-1	14
17	LSU	5-0	5-0	17
18	Arizona	5-0	5-0	18
19	UCF	3-1	3-1	15
20	Duke	3-2	3-2	22
21	Louisiana	4-0	4-0	20
22	North Texas	4-0	4-0	24
23	Auburn	4-1	4-1	19
24	Maryland	4-1	4-1	NR
25	Texas A&M	6-0	6-0	NR
Dropped Out
	Oregon	3-2	3-2	23
	Ole Miss	2-2	2-2	25

Texas A&M-Kingsville has made an early season coaching change to their program RTS has learned. Doug Eastman is seemingly out as head coach after a 2-4 start in his first season coaching the Javelinas. Request for comment from TAMUK has not been answered as of time of this posting. However, both an interim head and assistant coach posting has appeared on the institutes HR/employment site. According to the TAMUK Athletic Website the team canceled their appearance at the West Texas A&M Invitational last weekend with no particulars given in the release. Eastman had joined Texas A&M-Kingsville last August after 20 highly successful years on the junior college level.

The opening weekend woes continue for some top ranked DI squads. This time Maryland takes down No. 3 Oklahoma State in a shootout 11-6 at the Puerto Vallarta Challenge in Mexico. The offensive splurge was led by sophomore Amelia Lech who blasted a grand slam in the second inning.

The ranked teams keep falling on the opening weekend for Division I. This time Longwood knocks off No. 4 ranked Florida State on their home field in Tallahassee. The Lancers won 5-4 at the JoAnne Graf Classic while holding the Seminoles to just three hits.