283 Softball Teams Look Towards OKC
It's not how you start but how you finish. That can be applied to the more than 280 Division I college softball teams starting the 2015 season. The teams may start off on the wrong foot, but certainly want to finish in the best way possible to cap the 2015 season. For eight of them, the best finish would be to earn a berth in the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City, marking its silver anniversary this year in OKC.
Between the start of the season and the end of the season, however, a lot will happen and usually does. Teams, as well as players, will have slumps. Pitchers and other players will have their off days and, of course, it could happen at the worst time possible, perhaps in an NCAA Regional or Super Regional, which will have 64 teams vying for a spot in Oklahoma City.
The 64 teams will be selected from 283 NCAA Division I institutions sponsoring softball. Out of the 64 teams, 32 teams will receive automatic qualification with the remaining 32 teams selected at-large. Sixteen teams will be seeded and each of the seeded teams will be placed at one of the regional sites. The NCAA Division I Softball Championship bracket will be announced Sunday, May 10, 2015.
The Regionals will be held from May 15-17 on eight campus sites with four teams each playing a double-elimination tournament and the winning 16 teams advancing to the Super Regionals. The Super Regionals will be held May 21-24 on eight campus sites with two teams each. The teams will play a best-of-three format with the winners from the eight sites advancing to the WCWS in Oklahoma City.
The Women's College World Series will be held at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium-OGE Energy Field, May 28-June 3. This will be the 34th annual NCAA Women's College World Series and the 25th time that OKC and the Hall of Fame Stadium has hosted this premier event.
With the popularity of college softball continuing to increase, ESPN will televise select Regional and Super Regional games with all of the 15-17 games of the WCWS broadcast on the ESPN family of networks (ESPN, ESPN2 and/or ESPNU).
The WCWS will have nine, possibly 10 sessions with the first session at noon and 2:30 p.m. on Thursday May 28. That evening session two will be held at 7:00 and 9:30 p.m. Friday, May 29th. Session 3 will be held at 7:00 and 9:30 p.m. Session 4 is Saturday, May 30 at noon and 2:30 p.m. That evening (7:00 and 9:30 p.m.) session 5 will be held. Sunday, May 31st will have session 6 at 1:00 and 3:30 p.m. and session 7 (if necessary) at 7:00 and 9:30 p.m. Session 8 will be held Monday, June 1 at 8:00 p.m. with session 9 at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2. If the two teams have split the first two games of the championship series a third and final game will be played Wednesday, June 3 at 8:00 p.m. to crown the 2015 NCAA national champion.
But before we get eight teams to OKC, a lot of exciting, outstanding softball will be played throughout the United States as teams begin the road to OKC.
