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Three teams in the hunt for top spot in Week 6 ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 Collegiate Poll

March 21, 2017

Oklahoma City, OK - - Three teams in the hunt for top spot in Week 6 ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 Collegiate Poll


OKLAHOMA CITY — With a 13-0 overall record this week, the Top 3 teams remain the same in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll USA Softball announced today. For the fourth-consecutive week, the Florida Gators (26-1) earned the top spot after receiving 10-of-20 first-place votes, while No. 2 Florida State (28-1-1) garnered two votes and No. 3 Oregon (27-0) collected the remaining eight votes.

 

Click here to see the complete ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll

 

Another perfect week in which the pitching staff allowed just one run to cross the plate has helped keep the Gators atop the poll.  After posting a 13-0 (five inning) shutout over North Dakota State to start the week, Florida traveled to South Carolina for a Southeastern Conference (SEC) series against the Gamecocks.  The Gators captured a 6-0 win to open the series, followed with a 13-1 (five inning) decision in game two, and secured the series sweep with a 10-0 (five inning) shutout in the final game of the series.  Up next, the Gators will have a midweek meeting with South Florida before taking on No. 6 Auburn (27-3) at home. 

 

Three run-rule victories and four shutout wins highlighted another flawless week of play for the Florida State Seminoles.  Posting two wins against Florida Gulf Coast, 7-0 and 13-1 (five innings), and a 9-1 (six inning) win over Canisius, Florida State then took on Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) rival Notre Dame at home.  Two 6-0 shutouts and a 16-0 (five inning) run rule in the final game of the series earned the Seminoles their third-consecutive ACC sweep of the season. Florida State resumes action with a single away game against UCF before traveling to Charlottesville, Va. for a three-game series against Virginia. Maintaining their No. 3 ranking in the poll this week is Oregon, who opened up Pac-12 Conference play at home against then-No. 20 California (17-8).  With the Ducks picking up 5-1, 2-1 and 10-2 (five inning) wins over California, the Ducks remain the only undefeated team in the nation. Oregon will also hit the road this weekend when they travel to Salt Lake City, Utah for their second Pac-12 matchup of the season against No. 13 Utah (21-4).

 

No. 4 Arizona (29-1) collected five wins over the week to secure their ranking in this week’s poll, including a 4-3 win over then-No. 10 Oklahoma (24-7).  The Wildcats would add a 4-0 shutout over Long Beach State before heading to Corvallis, Ore. to open up Pac-12 play against Oregon State.  The Wildcats earned the series sweep, defeating the Beavers 6-2, 7-1 and 7-4 (eight innings) in their three-game series.  Arizona returns home to welcome No. 5 Washington (24-3) for a three-game series against the Huskies over the weekend. Joining the Top 5 this week is Washington, who also opened Pac-12 play this week against then-No. 22 Arizona State (19-8).  The Huskies opened the series with a 6-4 win before shutting down the Sun Devil offense with a pair of shutout wins to secure the series sweep.    

 

Rounding out the Top 10: No. 6 Auburn (27-3) went undefeated, earning wins over North Dakota State, South Florida, Illinois, Ohio State and LIU-Brooklyn; No 7 Texas A&M (25-2) went 4-0 on the week, including a series sweep of then-No. 24 Ole Miss (21-6);  No 8 Minnesota (25-2) moved up one spot in the poll after allowing just one run to cross the plate in a 4-0 week, including a win over then-No. 20 California; No. 9 Alabama (28-3) went 4-1 on the week while picking up two SEC wins; No. 10 James Madison (24-3) joins the Top 10 after collecting three shutout wins on the week.

 

Joining the Top 25 this week is North Carolina (24-6), who had a 3-1 performance on the week with an ACC series win over Virginia Tech, while last week’s No. 24 Ole Miss fell out of the Top 25 after suffering a series sweep from Texas A&M.

 

The ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll is voted on by coaching representatives of 10 Division I Conferences in the 10 USA Softball Regions as well as members of the National and Local media who consistently cover Division I Softball across the country.

 

About USA Softball
USA Softball is a 501(c)(3) not-for profit organization headquartered in Oklahoma City, Okla., and is designated as the National Governing Body (NGB) of Softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. One of the nation’s largest sports organizations, USA Softball sanctions competition in every state through a network of 70 local associations and has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 150,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than 2 million.  USA Softball is dedicated to providing people of all ages the opportunity to play the game they love at a variety of levels by offering recreational, league, tournament and competitive play for fast pitch, slow pitch and modified pitch.  USA Softball annually conducts thousands of tournaments throughout the country including over 100 National Championships.  The USA Softball umpire program is among the nation’s largest and are widely known as the best trained umpires in the game.

As the NGB for the sport of softball, USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting the six USA Softball National Teams that compete in events such as the Olympics, Pan American Games, World Championships and other international and domestic events. For more information on USA Softball, including its founding and history as the Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA), please visit, www.USASoftball.com.

 

About the NCAA Women’s College World Series 
ASA Hall of Fame Stadium – OGE Energy Field serves as the home to the NCAA Women’s College World Series (WCWS). For the 27th year, the top eight college teams in the nation will head to Oklahoma City and compete for a national championship. Last year, over 78,000 fans attended the WCWS. Be there to Share The Experience with softball fans from across the country June 1-7  in Oklahoma City. Tickets for the 2017 NCAA WCWS are on sale now, click here to purchase your tickets and secure your championship experience!

 

 

Codi Warren I Managing Director of Communications

USA Softball

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