The NCAA Women’s College World Series Championship is all set and the best of three series begins tonight. The entire season has led to this point and sports fans should be lining up around the world to watch the finale unfold. Before we jump into the preview, lets learn a bit more about how we got here.
NCAA Tournament
The NCAA Softball tournament began with 64 teams throughout the league. This round of 64 is called the Regionals and is hosted by the top 16 teams, where four teams play a double elimination series to advance to the Super Regionals. The 16 teams making it to the Super Regionals face another double elimination series to advance to the Women’s College World Series (WCWS).
The 2022 bracket! 🥎
🔗 https://t.co/m29SapfjX3
#RoadToWCWS pic.twitter.com/MaPAPwmvCq— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) May 15, 2022
The Super Regionals were hosted by Oklahoma (#1 overall seed) Arizona State (PAC-12 champions), UCLA (PAC-12 runner-up), Arkansas (SEC winner), Virginia Tech (ACC winner), Stanford, Oklahoma State and Mississippi State.
Following a best of 3 series in the Super Regionals, eight teams advanced to the WCWS: #1 Oklahoma, #5 UCLA, #7 Oklahoma State, #9 Northwestern, #14 Florida, Texas, Arizona, and Oregon State.
The WCWS begins as a double elimination tournament to get four teams into the Semi-Finals. Those four teams were Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas and UCLA. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State made it undefeated into the semi finals and need only one more win to make it to the Championship series.
Texas and UCLA got knocked into the loser’s bracket before winning their way back into the semi finals and needed to beat Oklahoma State and Oklahoma (respectively) twice before advancing. Texas and UCLA both forced the if-necessary game two. Oklahoma was back to form beating UCLA 15-0, the largest in WCWS history. Texas battled back from a 5-0 deficit to beat Oklahoma State 6-5 and punch their ticket to the WCWS Championship against Oklahoma.
WCWS Championship Series
- Game 1: Oklahoma vs Texas June 8th
- Game 2: Oklahoma vs Texas June 9th
- Game 3 (if necessary): Oklahoma vs Texas June 10th
𝑩𝒆 𝑳𝑬𝑮𝑬𝑵𝑫𝑨𝑹𝒀 🏆@TexasSoftball 🆚 @OU_Softball
📆 Wednesday, June 8
⏰ 8:30 PM ET
📺 @espn📆 Thursday, June 9
⏰ 7:30 PM ET
📺 ESPN2📆 Friday, June 10 (if necessary)
⏰ 8:30 PM ET
📺 @espn#WCWS pic.twitter.com/rzvoKqLofD— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) June 8, 2022
WCWS Championship Series: Preview
The Finals are set and the story could not have been written better. Oklahoma is the overall number 1 seed and has dominated the season from start to finish. They started the season 32-0 before finishing 57-3. Head Coach Patty Gasso’s team led the NCAA in batting average, runs and home runs with four All-Americans and the NCAA record holder in home runs Jocelyn Alo. This marks Oklahoma’s third straight championship series and seventh in the past ten years.
Now enter Texas. Bitter rivals of Oklahoma and the first ever unseeded team to make it to the Championship series. Texas struggled throughout the season but is one of the most dangerous teams in the playoffs. Their only loss in the tournament came to Oklahoma in the WCWS. Texas will have its hands full trying to stifle the most dominant offense in history that has outscored opponents 500-47 in the regular season.
Fans of softball and sports in general will be in for a treat to watch fierce rivals battle for the championship in what, on paper, is the biggest David and Goliath story ever seen in NCAA softball.
