Close Season Opener
Tim Walton’s Gators entered the game as the number six team in the nation. This Gator team has a wealth of talent across the board, but that depth struggled in the season opener.
Members of the Florida Gators Softball team make their way around the field prior to their season opener against USF. PHOTO CREDIT: @GatorsSB on Twitter
While everything was going smooth in the first inning, the hot bats quickly cooled.
Jordan Matthews opened the scoring with a two-run double, and the Gators pushed it to a three-run lead through a Baylee Goddard single.
The difference was USF starting pitcher Georgina Corrick. Arguably South Florida’s most dynamic player, Corrick came into the game on USA Softball’s watchlist for 2021 Collegiate Player of the Year. After the tough first inning, Corrick locked in and held the Gators scoreless.
Oklahoma softball embarks on its quest for a fifth national championship this week.
The Sooners, ranked No. 4 in USA TODAY/NFCA and ESPN.com/USA Softball preseason polls to start the season, finally released their 2021 schedule on Tuesday.
OU will face 10 programs who made the 2019 NCAA tournament in 2021. Twenty-one contests will take place inside the friendly confines of Marita Hines Field in Norman.
The first battles of the 2021 season will take place on Feb. 11-12 in the Wildcat Invitational, which was originally scheduled to take place in Abilene, TX, but has been moved to El Paso, TX, due to the freezing temperatures sweeping the nation this week. OU will play the UTEP Miners and Abilene Christian University twice each over the course of the invitational, with the seasons’ first pitch coming on Thursday at 11 a.m. against the Miners.
It marks the second consecutive season UCF will host a Pac-12 program, and third time ever, as the Knights hosted No. 1 Washington in 2020 and Utah in 2016.
Arizona Head Coach Mike Candrea is NCAA D1 All-time leader in wins, Have won 8 National titles at Arizona
Photo by Jacob Funk/J and L Photography/Getty Images
The Wildcats are one of the most decorated programs in College Softball under Head Coach Mike Candrea, who won eight national titles since being at Arizona in 1986, and is the all-time leader in Division I wins with 1,633. This will be the second all-time meeting between UCF and Arizona. The Wilcats won the first meeting back at the Mary Nutter Classic in 2016.
Two members of the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns received major preseason accolades last week, as they get set to begin the 2021 college softball season.
For a second-consecutive season, senior pitcher Summer Ellyson was named to the USA Softball Player of the Year Watch List, spotlighting the top 50 players in the country, while senior outfielder Ciara Bryan was tabbed a first-team selection to D1Softball s Preseason All-American Team.
Ellyson, an NFCA All-American (third team) and the Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Year in 2019, put together an 11-1 mark and a 1.83 ERA during the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season, after going 39-6 in 2019.
The Top 25 Finalists for the 2021 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award will be announced on April 21 with the Top 10 Finalists being announced on May 5, and the Top Three to be announced on May 19.
South Carolina softball s incoming freshmen add exciting spark to a deeply talented roster
All you need to know about the 2021 college softball season
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Before South Carolina could start building its chemistry on the field, head coach Beverly Smith had to tackle a construction project in the locker room.
Because of the extra year of eligibility granted from the coronavirus pandemic, the Gamecocks have 27 players on the roster this season.
It’s by far the largest of Smith’s career, and she didn’t have enough lockers for every player.
Smith devised a plan to remove two lockers from the coaches’ locker room to give to the players while reconfiguring a locker already in place.