Oklahoma eyes 5th straight national title at Women's College World Series
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma could extend its record run of consecutive national titles to five at this year's Women's College World Series.
Patty Gasso's second-seeded Sooners will face No. 7 seed Tennessee in their WCWS opener. Oklahoma beat Alabama on Saturday to win the Norman Super Regional.
Action in the eight-team double-elimination bracket begins Thursday at Devon Park. The final two teams will play for the title in a best-of-three series starting June 4.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
11 minutes ago
- CNN
Nebraska is the latest state to ban transgender students from girls' sports
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed into law Wednesday a measure banning transgender students from girls' sports, making the state the latest to keep transgender athletes from competing on women's and girls' teams. Pillen signed the law flanked by dozens of lawmakers, women athletes and other advocates — including former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines, who has made a name for herself as a vocal advocate of banning transgender athletes from women's sports. The measure passed by the Nebraska Legislature last week broke a filibuster by a single vote cast along party lines. It was pared down from its initial form, which also sought to bar transgender students from using bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding with their gender identity. Sponsors agreed to drop the bathroom and locker room ban when one Republican — Omaha Sen. Merv Riepe — declared he would vote against it otherwise. The measure was first introduced in 2023 by then-freshman Sen. Kathleen Kauth, but failed to advance as lawmakers angrily argued over Kauth's other bill that sought to bar gender-affirming care for transgender minors under the age of 19. An amended version that banned gender-affirming surgery — but not all gender-affirming care — for minors later passed and was enacted that year. On Wednesday, Kauth promised to revive her bathroom and locker room ban next year, reiterating her rejection that people can determine their own gender. 'Men are men and women are women,' she said, and urged voters in Riepe's district to pressure him to support it. Republicans behind the sports ban say it protects women and girls and their ability to fairly compete in sports. Opponents say with so few transgender students seeking to participate in sports, the measure is a solution in search of a problem. Fewer than 10 transgender students have applied to participate in middle school and high school sports in the state since 2018, the Nebraska School Activities Association said Wednesday. At least 24 other states have adopted similar bans. President Donald Trump also signed an executive order this year intended to dictate which sports competitions transgender athletes can enter and has battled in court with Maine over that state's allowing transgender athletes in girls' and women's sports. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska denounced the measure. ACLU Nebraska Executive Director Mindy Rush Chipman said the ban 'slams the door shut' for some transgender students to fully participate in their school communities. 'This ban will only create problems, not solve any,' Rush Chipman said, adding that 'the constant targeting of LGBTQ+ Nebraskans must stop.'
Fox News
12 minutes ago
- Fox News
Fenway Park's Pesky's Pole gifts Red Sox dramatic victory with record-setting short homer
Ceddanne Rafaela may just be thanking his lucky stars he plays his home games at Fenway Park. Rafaela used Pesky's Pole to his advantage on Wednesday afternoon to lift his Boston Red Sox to an 11-9 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. On the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the ninth, a 97-mph fastball, Rafaela swung and flew one down the right field line. But with the foul pole just 302 feet from home plate, it was enough to be a walk-off two-run homer. The ball traveled just 308 feet, the shortest walk-off shot in the Statcast era (since 2015). Obviously, it would only have been a home run at Fenway. The three shortest home runs ever tracked by Statcast have all been at Fenway Park, and Rafaela's shot is the third-shortest on record. The Angels blew 4-0, 7-5, 8-7 and 9-8 leads, with Rafael Devers bouncing a chopper between the gloves of second baseman Chris Taylor and shortstop Zach Neto behind second base to tie it 9-9 in the eighth. The Angels moved to 28-33, while the Sox are now 30-34. Each of the first three times the Red Sox scored, Los Angeles answered with runs of its own. But after walking Mike Trout to lead off the ninth, Cooper Criswell (1-0) got the next three batters out to give Boston a chance to walk it off. The pole, of course, is named after Johnny Pesky, who hit just 17 career home runs, but six of them occurred right around the pole. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
New York Times
20 minutes ago
- New York Times
Manfred: MLB will propose automated ball-strike challenge system for 2026
NEW YORK — Commissioner Rob Manfred said on Wednesday he plans to introduce a proposal to Major League Baseball's competition committee that would bring the automated ball-strike system to MLB in 2026. Barring a change of heart inside Manfred's group, then, ABS appears likely to arrive in the big leagues next year. The league office has enough votes on the 11-person committee — which is also made up of player representatives and one umpire — to ultimately push through what it wants. Advertisement Human umpires would still make the vast majority of ball-strike calls themselves, but teams would start each game with two challenges to the umpire's opinion. Umpires would then rely on a technology system that the league has tested for years in the minor leagues and in major-league spring training this year. Teams retain the challenge if they get the call overturned. 'I do think that we're going to pursue the possibility of changing that process, and we'll see what comes out at the end of that,' Manfred said at MLB headquarters. 'I think that teams are really positive about ABS. You know, I do have that unscientific system that I use — my email traffic — and my distinct impression is that using ABS in spring training has made people more prone to complain about balls and strike calls via email, to me, referencing the need for ABS. That is undoubtedly true, undoubtedly true.' The Major League Baseball Players Association did not immediately have comment. The technology used in ABS doesn't exactly mimic a human strike zone, because umpires on average call balls and strikes differently depending on the count: a tighter zone on 0-2, for example, and a wider one on 3-0. Manfred, however, didn't indicate any outstanding concerns about the system's operation other than how players will react. 'My single biggest concern is working through the process and deploying it in a way that's acceptable to the players,' Manfred said. 'There's always going to be things around the edges that we need to work through and whatever, and I want them to feel like we respected the committee process and that there was a full airing of concerns about the system, and an attempt to address those concerns before we go forward.' Players on the competition committee have almost universally been opposed to Manfred's on-field rule changes over time. Owner-player relations are going to get progressively more sensitive next season, with the collective bargaining agreement's expiration after the 2026 season. But Manfred indicated that he wasn't going to move gingerly on rule changes because of the impending labor talks. Advertisement MLB has long held the power to implement on-field rule changes that it wants, but in the most current CBA, which went into effect in 2022, the league received the right to implement changes on shorter notice: 45 days after a proposal. 'We bargained for the right to make these kind of rule changes,' Manfred said. 'It was a really important part of the deal from our perspective. Everybody understood what the rules of the road are. … Unlike the prior provision, there's actually a process that is involved, that you go through, that you kind of have a chance to vet and talk about what should happen with the players. So I'm less reticent about that. 'In the past, I have been a little squeamish about the year before bargaining. I don't feel that way right now.' MLB is also testing a check-swing review system in the minors this season. It's unclear when that system will be tested by big leaguers, however. Manfred indicated that system was unlikely to be tested in major-league spring training next year because of the possibility everyone would still be adjusting to ABS. 'We haven't made a decision about the check-swing thing,' Manfred said. 'We do try to think sequentially about what's coming. I think we got to get over the hump in terms of either doing ABS or not doing it before you'd get into the complication of a separate kind of challenge involved in an at-bat, right? You think about them, they're two different systems operating at the same time. We really got to think that one through.' (Photo of Manfred: Patrick Breen / The Republic / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
