Upsets rattled NCAA softball’s final regular-season weekend
The GIST: Still stunned by the regular season’s last weekend? Same. The girlies closed things out with some diamond-level chaos, making fans even more excited for the upcoming postseason.
No. 4 Cowgirls own Bedlam: As you read, Oklahoma State pulled off the upset of the weekend season by winning their road series against blood rival Oklahoma — but there was more than vengeance on the line: The Cowgirls’ two wins, plus No. 1 Texas’ merciless sweep of Texas Tech, pushed Texas past Oklahoma in the Big 12 standings to clinch the conference dub. Giddy TF up.
Syracuse shakes up the ACC: Like Oklahoma State, the Orange played wingman this weekend: Their stunning series win over No. 14 Florida State shifted the standings, allowing No. 5 Duke to capture the ACC crown — even though Duke, who had a bye this weekend, didn’t even play. Work smarter, not harder, eh, Blue Devils?
No. 6 UCLA holds it down: The Bruins easily conquered their weekend series against Arizona State, locking down the last-ever Pac-12 regular-season title — but second-place No. 7 Stanford’s failure to sweep No. 21 Oregon padded UCLA’s dub.
No. 3 Tennessee seals SEC in style: The Vols were expected to snag the SEC, but their weekend sweep of No. 24 Kentucky gave them a two-game lead over the next-closest team, No. 9 Florida. With a strikingly solid win in one of the country’s most competitive conferences, Tennessee’s looking more and more like a natty threat every day.
- The SEC did have their fair share of weekend surprises, though: The aforementioned Florida swept No. 8 Texas A&M, while No. 11 Arkansas, No. 12 Georgia, and No. 16 Alabama all stumbled at the finish line by dropping their series to lower-ranked teams. Yikes.
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