Rounding Third Softball

The Big 12 Regular-Season Champion Oklahoma (45-1) remains the unanimous No. 1 in this week’s USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Coaches Poll. The Top 5 saw one change however, as Arkansas (39-8) joined in at No. 5.

Rank	School (First Place Votes)	Points	2022 Record	Prev. Ranking
1	Oklahoma (32)	800	45-1	1
2	Virginia Tech	763	39-6	2
3	Florida State	730	45-5	4
4	UCLA	698	39-6	3
5	Arkansas	669	39-8	7
6	Alabama	616	39-9	5
7	Oklahoma State	609	38-9	6
8	Northwestern	594	38-7	8
9	Washington	536	32-11	10
10	Florida	526	38-13	9
11	Duke	450	36-7	12
12	Arizona State	431	35-7	14
13	Kentucky	419	33-15	11
14	Tennessee	407	35-14	13
15	Auburn	337	39-11	16
16	Georgia	308	39-13	15
17	Texas	294	35-15-1	17
18	Clemson	291	37-14	18
19	LSU	210	32-19	19
20	Notre Dame	184	36-9	20
21	UCF	174	42-11	21
22	Oregon	132	29-16	22
23	Michigan	55	31-15	23
24	Missouri	54	31-17	RV
25	Arizona	46	31-16	25

New to Poll: No. 24 Missouri 

Dropped Out: No. 24 Stanford 

Receiving Votes: Stanford (41), Louisiana (15), Nebraska (6), San Diego State (5).

Yale has announced that they have parted ways with head coach Jen Goodwin. Goodwin was hired to lead the program in 2012. She compiled an overall record of 106-242-1. This Bulldogs went 11-23 in the 2022 season

James Madison announced today that they have canceled the remaining four games of their 2022 season following the tragic passing of sophomore catcher Lauren Bernett. The cancellations include games against Virginia and Elon. Contests against Longwood and Delaware had already been canceled last week. The Dukes finish the season 21-21 and 10-5 in CAA play.

Florida Head Coach Tim Walton achieved his 1,000th career coaching victory on Sunday in a 2-1 win over LSU. Walton has coached the Gators for 17 seasons winning two National Championships in his tenure. He has a combined record of 1,000-259 in 20 years as a head coach including three seasons heading the program at Wichita State.

Following-up on earlier breaking news of Texas Tech making a coaching change to their program; RTS has learned that the team at Tech was told in a team meeting called earlier today the change was made due to the “lack of improvement” by the program under its current leadership. Head Coach Sami Ward and her staff had been in Lubbock for less than two seasons and had a record 43-52, including 8-28 in Big 12 play. Ward had three years remaining on her five-year contract. Sources have indicated to RTS that the contract will be paid out.

In a very surprising and unexpected move, Texas Tech has announced a change in leadership. Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt announced Sunday that head coach Sami Ward and her coaching staff have been relieved of their duties, effective immediately. Ward was in her second season leading the Red Raiders after serving as head coach at Loyola Marymount. Tech is 22-26 this season and 5-13 in Big 12 Conference play. Director of Operations Brooke Reed has been appointed interim head coach for the remainder of the season.

RTS will be in the Scenic City tomorrow for the start of the three-game Southern Conference Series between Mercer (13-34, 5-10) and Chattanooga (21-23, 5-7). Game 1 of the series starts at 1 pm Saturday. Check-in beginning at Noon on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for real-time updates from the matchup between the Bears and Mocs.

The National Fastpitch Coaches Association has announced the Top 25 for the 2022 Schutt Sports/NFCA Division I National Freshman of the Year award. The award honors outstanding athletic achievement among Division I freshmen softball student-athletes. The finalists represent 25 different universities across 15 NCAA Division I conferences. The list will be dwindled twice more to 10, and then three finalists, before the Freshman of the Year Award is announced on May 31. Oklahoma’s Jordy Bahl tops this list of finalist as the potential favorite for the award. The complete list of the Top 25 FOTY can be found at 2022 Schutt Sports/NFCA Division I Freshman of the Year Top 25 revealed

The NCAA and their sports (including softball) could look a lot different in the coming years. With the announcement of NCAA President Mark Emmert stepping down within the next year on Tuesday, the NCAA Transformation Committee announced some possible future legislation that could radically change the landscape of college sports.

Some of those possible changes include:

-Eliminating scholarship caps on sports that offer only partial scholarships

-Lifting the limitation on the number of coaches per team-

Expanding direct payments from schools to athletes-

Reconfiguring recruiting calendars to eliminate dead and quite periods

-Implementing closed periods in the NCAA transfer portal

After defeating No. 2 Salisbury (32-4) in a DH last week, top-ranked Christopher Newport (35-1) has kept hold of the No. 1 spot in this week’s NFCA Division III Top 25 Coaches Poll. The Captains collected all 10 first place votes.

Rank	Team	Points	2022 Record	Previous
1	Christopher Newport (10)	250	35-1	1
2	Salisbury	240	32-4	2
3	Texas Lutheran	230	35-4	3
4	Eastern Connecticut State	220	28-4	5
5	Belhaven	210	31-5	6
6	DePauw	200	26-6	7
7	Linfield	190	36-7	8
8	East Texas Baptist	180	27-8	4
9	Birmingham-Southern	170	32-6	9
10	Mary Hardin-Baylor	160	28-9	12
11	Bethel	150	25-2	14
12	Berry	140	27-11	13
13	Randolph-Macon	130	30-7	10
14	Virginia Wesleyan	120	29-10	15
15	Concordia (Wis.)	110	27-3	17
16	Milwaukee School of Engineering	100	18-4	19
17	Roanoke	90	26-10	20
18	Babson	80	28-6	T24
19	Wisconsin-Oshkosh	70	20-6	11
20	Piedmont	60	26-9	RV
21	Rowan	50	26-8	16
22	Geneseo	22	25-3	RV
23	Millikin	15	26-4	22
24	Lynchburg	14	23-17	NR
25	Pfeiffer	9	32-8	NR

Others receiving votes: Case Western Reserve 8, Wisconsin-La Crosse 7, Susquehanna 6, Saint Benedict (Minn.) 5, Alma 4, Aurora 3, Tufts 3, Mount St. Joseph 1, and Wartburg 1.

Dropped out: George Fox and The College of New Jersey.