Rounding Third Softball

Texas Tech has named Craig Snider their new head coach. One of the top offensive minds in all of collegiate softball, Snider spent the last three seasons as the hitting coach at Texas A&M. Before going to College Station he was an assistant helping build one of the top programs in the country at Florida State. The Seminoles won the 2018 National Championship.

The No. 1 spot in the final USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Coaches Poll looked a lot like the 2022 preseason poll did. For that matter, all the polls in between had the same name atop it. Oklahoma was the unanimous No. 1 in the final DI Top 25 Poll of the season. The Sooners won their second National Championship in a row, holding that top ranking in every poll this season as they solidified themselves as the most dominant softball team in collegiate history.

Rank	School (First Place Votes)	Points	2022 Record	Prev. Ranking
1	Oklahoma (32)	800	59-3	1
2	Texas	766	47-22-1	16
3	UCLA	725	51-10	5
4	Oklahoma State	716	48-14	6
5	Florida	657	49-19	12
6	Northwestern	625	45-13	10
7	Arizona	591	39-22
8	Oregon State	552	39-22
9	Arkansas	535	48-11	4
10	Virginia Tech	517	46-10	3
11	Arizona State	482	43-11	8
12	Duke	424	44-11	9
13	Florida State	390	54-7	2
14	UCF	362	49-14	18
15	Washington	314	38-17	11
16	Clemson	306	42-17	14
17	Alabama	275	44-13	7
18	Stanford	264	39-22	RV
19	Mississippi State	250	37-27
20	Tennessee	215	41-18	13
21	Kentucky	200	37-19	15
22	Georgia	130	40-16	19
23	Missouri	104	35-20	20
24	Auburn	67	40-17	17
25	Oregon	52	33-19	23

New to Poll:  No. 7 Arizona, No. 8 Oregon State, No. 18 Stanford, No. 19 Mississippi State

Dropped Out: No. 21 Notre Dame, No. 22 LSU, No. 24 Michigan, No. 25 Nebraska

Receiving Votes: Michigan (24), Notre Dame (14), Nebraska (12), LSU (11), Louisiana (9), San Diego State (7), Ole Miss (4).

UNC Pembroke has named Stephanie Graziani head coach. Graziani takes over leadership of the Braves after serving the last five seasons as an assistant coach. While on staff UNCP had winning seasons in each of the last three years, while also amassing 11 all-conference selections.

Coker has named Brittany Bennett their new head coach. Bennett joins the Cobras after spending the past nine years at UNC Pembroke, where she amassed over 200 career wins and was named the 2021 Peach Belt Conference Coach of the Year.

After being tabbed interim head coach at Auburn-Montgomery earlier this month, Scottie Wilkes has now had that tag removed being named permanently to the position. Wilkes, an assistant with the program since 2012, becomes the third head coach in AUM History. Last season, Wilkes helped the Warhawks to a 49-13 record, including a 25-5 mark in GSC play. The team advanced all the way to the DII World Series.

Southern Illinois-Edwardsville interim head coach P.J. Finigan has resigned. Finigan led the Cougars through the 2022 season compiling a 19-35 record.

The hiring of Finigan from the SIUE Baseball staff early last summer and being given the interim tag for the year, was seen at the time as a unfathomable and lazy move by SIUE Administration. At the time Director of Athletics Tim Hall said there were not enough “qualified” applicants for the position, indicating why this hire was made.

RTS learned there were numerous qualified applicants that had applied early in the summer hiring cycle. That pool was made up of former and current head coaches along with some current assistant coaches from within SIUE’s conference at the time. An open records request for the list of applicants made by RTS to SIUE was denied.

Let’s hope Mr. Hall and his administrative staff do their due-diligence this time around for their student-athletes in finding a suitable and permanent leader for their program moving forward.

Sources have confirmed to RTS that Memphis will part ways with head coach Natalie Poole. Poole had led the Tigers since 2012. Her most successful season came in 2018 when the program finished with 37 victories. The 2022 squad went 16-38 and 2-16 in AAC play.

Kansas City is parting ways with head coach Kerry Shaw. UMKC indicated they were not renewing his contract on Tuesday. In three seasons coaching the Kangaroos, Shaw compiled a record of 48-73.

Could Jocelyn Alo’s professional future lay away from the softball diamond? One scout at last night’s WCWS Final between Oklahoma and Texas could indicate that. Stephanie McMahon daughter of WWE Owner Vince McMahon was in attendance at the Sooners National Championship Victory in Oklahoma City. Alo was an accomplished amateur wrestler for her high school in Hawaii before coming to OU.

NCAA announced the WCWS All-Tournament Team at the conclusion of the event last night. The National Champion Oklahoma Sooners led the team with five selections, including Jocelyn Alo the MVP of the WCWS who hit .656 with nine home runs.

2022 WCWS All-Tournament Team:

Jocelyn Alo-Oklahoma (MVP)

Tiara Jennings-Oklahoma

Jayda Coleman-Oklahoma

Rylie Boone-Oklahoma

Hope Trautwein-Oklahoma

Bella Dayton-Texas

Courtney Day-Texas

Estelle Czech-Texas

Delanie Wisz-UCLA

Megan Faraimo-UCLA

Maya Brady-UCLA

Kelley Maxwell-Oklahoma State