By Claire Webster

College softball started in 1910 and is now one of the most popular women’s sports broadcasts on television. The 2023 softball season has started in full swing with a pre-season tournament.

During the tournament, the University of California, Los Angeles, was ranked number one, while “Powerhouse Oklahoma” was second. 

Many talented young women are playing with their schools to try to win the World Series this year, including Tiare Jennings (ranked number one), Kelly Maxwell (ranked number two), Addison Barnard, (ranked number 3), Grace Lyons (ranked number four), and Baylee Klingler (ranked number five). 

Jennings, Maxwell, and Lyons of the five-star lineup are from Oklahoma, making them the number-one softball team.

Jennings took Jocelyn Alo’s spot as number one after Alo graduated from Oklahoma. According to the top players in college softball 2023 season, “Jocelyn Alo passed the torch to Tiare Jennings in multiple ways, including being our top-ranked player. It shouldn’t shock anyone that Oklahoma, the two-time defending national champions, have the most players on the list with 10 and eight in the top 26.”

After UCLA became ranked number one in the pre-season tournament, Oklahoma came back and reclaimed their spot as number one. UCLA is now ranked second with Oklahoma State, Tennessee, and Florida State following close behind.

As of April 18, there are now going to be new rankings in the poll, such as Washington and Duke, who are now in the top ten. Georgia is ranked eleventh. They lost two times to Florida, which helped bump Florida into fourth. Utah got bumped up as well since winning a game against Stanford. 

NCAA Utah softball secures sweep no 5 stanford walk single states that, “Ellessa Bonstrom lined a game-winning, two-run single into center field in the bottom of the seventh inning and the No. 19 University of Utah softball team completed a sweep of the No. 5 Stanford Cardinal with a 5-4 triumph on Sunday afternoon in Pac-12 Conference action at the Dumke Family Softball Stadium.”

The next set of games starts on April 20.