The Texas Longhorns will attempt to defend their Women’s College World Series crown in a field dominated by SEC teams.
Texas is one of five SEC programs to participate in the eight-team event that begins on Thursday afternoon in Oklahoma City.
The UCLA Bruins and Alabama Crimson Tide are among the WCWS regulars in the field.
There are plenty of new faces in the field as well. The Arkansas Razorbacks and Mississippi State Bulldogs qualified for their first-ever WCWS and the Nebraska Cornhuskers will make their first appearance since 2013.
Full bracket available at NCAA.com.
Women’s College World Series Field
Alabama (def. LSU 2 games to 0 in super regional round)
Nebraska (def. Oklahoma State, 2-0)
Tennessee (def. Georgia, 2-0)
Texas Tech (def. Florida, 2-1)
Mississippi State (def. Oklahoma, 2-1)
Texas (def. Arizona State, 2-1)
Texas, Mississippi State and the Texas Tech Red Raiders booked the final three WCWS spots on Sunday.
Texas Tech won a wild 23-run affair in Game 3 of its super regional battle with the Florida Gators. Texas Tech scored 26 runs in its two wins in Gainesville this weekend.
Mississippi State pulled off the upset of the super regional weekend with two wins on the road against the Oklahoma Sooners.
Oklahoma will not be in the WCWS field for the first time since 2015. The Sooners were shut out by Mississippi State on Sunday. It was the first time an opponent shut out the Sooners in 399 games.
Texas blanked Arizona State on Sunday to finalize the eight-team field.
The other five WCWS participants swept their respective super regional matchups with two wins in a row.
The WCWS field features three of the best pitchers in recent college softball history in Nebraska’s Jordy Frahm, Texas Tech’s NiJaree Canady and Tennessee’s Karlyn Pickens. The trio of senior pitchers all rank in the top 15 in the NCAA in ERA.
Tennessee owns the best pitching staff in the field with three pitchers who have an ERA of 1.50 or lower, led by Pickens.
UCLA has two of the top three home-run hitters in Division I. Megan Grant and Jordan Woolery combined to hit 78 long balls. The Bruins scored 23 runs in the super regional round.
UCLA hit 196 home runs as a team. Only Oklahoma was in the same stratosphere during the regular season. Texas Tech’s third-best 131 home runs is the only other top-10 home-run total in the field.
UCLA, Nebraska, Alabama and Texas Tech all lost under 10 games this season. Texas and Tennessee suffered exactly 10 defeats.
The elite level of play across the board makes it difficult to predict a clear favorite, but it should also give us one of the more competitive WCWS fields in quite some time.
