The 2018 NCAA Division I softball tournament was held from May 18 through June 6, 2018 as the final part of the 2018 NCAA Division I softball season. Thirty-two teams were awarded automatic bids as champions of their conferences, and the remaining 32 were selected at-large by the NCAA Division I softball selection committee. The tournament culminated with eight teams playing in the 2018

Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States and is held annually in Oklahoma City, OK. The event is held at Devon Park (stadium), Devon Park loca ...

ASA Hall of Fame Stadium Devon Park, originally known as the Don E. Porter ASA Hall of Fame Stadium from 1987 to 2017 and USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium, until 2024, is softball-specific ballpark located inside the USA Softball Hall of Fame Complex in Oklahoma City, ...

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

. This was the first year since the

2010 Women's College World Series The 2010 NCAA Division 1 softball tournament was held from May 20 through June 8, 2010 and is part of the 2010 NCAA Division 1 softball season. The 64 NCAA Division 1 college softball teams were selected out of an eligible 284 teams on May 16, 2 ...

that neither the

Florida Gators The Florida Gators are the College sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville, Florida, Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni an ...

nor the

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the college athletics in the United States , athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman, Oklahoma, Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to ...

made the Championship Series. The

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University (FSU) located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I, prima ...

played in their first Women's College World Series Championship Series and became the first ACC team to make the Championship Series. The

Washington Huskies The Washington Huskies are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Washington, located in Seattle. The school competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) N ...

made their fourth appearance in the Championship Series.

Automatic bids

The Big West, Mountain West, Pac-12, and West Coast Conference bids were awarded to the regular-season champion. All other conferences have the automatic bid go to the conference tournament winner.

National seeds

16 National Seeds were announced on the Selection Show Sunday, May 13 at 10 p.m. EDT on

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...

. The 16 national seeds host the Regionals. Teams in italics advanced to Super Regionals. Teams in bold advance to

. ''1. '' (47–7)
''2. '' (50–8)
''3. '' (50–4)
''4. '' (50–3)
''5.

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

'' (44–8)
''6.

Florida State Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

'' (47–10)
''7. '' (43–11)
''8. '' (43–11)
''9. '' (45–14)
''10. '' (45–12)
''11. '' (41–14)
''12.

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

'' (33–18)
''13. '' (39–15)
''14. '' (40–14)
''15. '' (40–16)
''16. '' (31–19)

Regionals and Super Regionals

The Regionals took place May 17–20, 2018. One regional- Eugene, Oregon, took place May 17–19, 2018, because of BYU's no-Sunday-play policy; all other regionals occurred May 18–20, 2018. The Super Regionals took place from May 24–27, 2018.

Eugene Super Regional

Tempe Super Regional

Seattle Super Regional

Norman Super Regional

Los Angeles Super Regional

Tallahassee Super Regional

Athens Super Regional

Gainesville Super Regional

Women's College World Series

The Women's College World Series was held May 31 through June 6, 2018, in Oklahoma City.

Participants

† = ''From NCAA Division I Softball Championship Results''

Bracket

All-tournament Team

The following players were members of the Women's College World Series All-Tournament Team.

Championship Game

Schedule

Record by conference

The columns RF, SR, WS, NS, F, and NC respectively stand for the Regional Finals, Super Regionals, College World Series Teams, National Semi-Finals, Finals, and National Champion.

Media coverage

Radio

Westwood One Westwood One, Inc. is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1976. The co ...

provided nationwide radio coverage of the championship series. It was streamed online at westwoodsports.com, through

TuneIn TuneIn is a global audio streaming service providing news, radio, sports, music, and podcasts to over 75 million monthly active users. TuneIn is operated by the privately held company TuneIn Inc. based in San Francisco, California. The comp ...

, and on

SiriusXM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merge ...

John Sadak John Sadak (born September 15, 1979) is an American TV/radio sports announcer with the Cincinnati Reds, CBS Sports, Westwood One radio, CBS Sports Network, the ESPN family of networks and Fox Sports 1. Personal life Sadak is a two-time Rowan Un ...

made his softball radio debut and joined returning analyst

Leah Amico Leah Marie O'Brien-Amico (born September 9, 1974) is an American, former college softball outfielder, author, speaker and sports commentator. She is currently the head coach for the Florida Vibe of the Association of Fastpitch Professionals (AF ...

for Westwood One.

Television

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

holds exclusive rights to the tournament. They aired games across ESPN,

ESPNU ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remain ...

SEC Network SEC Network (SECN) is an American multinational sports network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications (which hold ...

, and

ESPN3 ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360 and ESPN3.com) is an internet, online streaming media, streaming service owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) an ...

. For the second time in the history of the women's softball tournament ESPN covered every regional.

Broadcast assignments

''Regionals'' *Eugene: Ted Enberg & Kenzie Fowler *Lexington: Courtney Lyle &

Jenny Dalton-Hill Jenny Dalton-Hill (born March 5, 1974) is an American former collegiate All-American softball player and current sports commentator and general manager for the Bandits for the inaugural 2025 season of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUS ...

*Columbia: Brad Muller & Dr. Megan Buning *Tempe: Tiffany Greene & Amanda Scarborough *Seattle: Eric Collins & Michele Smith *Tuscaloosa: Melissa Lee & Leigh Dakich *Fayetteville:

Eric Frede Eric Frede is an American sportscaster who has worked for NESN since 2002. He was previously the play-by-play announcer for NESN College Football Saturday broadcasts until he left NESN and joined NBC Sports Boston and is currently an anchor for ...

& Jennie Ritter *Norman: Pam Ward & Carol Bruggeman ''Super Regionals'' *Eugene: Mark Neely & Danielle Lawrie *Tempe: Courtney Lyle & Jenny Dalton-Hill *Seattle: Eric Frede & Jennie Ritter *Norman: Pam Ward & Carol Bruggeman ''Women's College World Series'' *Adam Amin, Amanda Scarborough, &

Laura Rutledge Laura Rutledge (née McKeeman; born October 2, 1988) is an American reporter and host for ESPN and the SEC Network. She is an American beauty pageant titleholder from St. Petersburg, Florida, who was named Miss Florida 2012. Biography She won th ...

(afternoons, early Fri) *Beth Mowins, Jessica Mendoza (minus Sunday), Michele Smith, & Holly Rowe (evenings minus early Fri) ''Regionals'' *Los Angeles: Trey Bender &

*Tucson: Mark Neely &

Danielle Lawrie Danielle Elaine Lawrie (born April 11, 1987) is a Canadian, former collegiate All-American, medal-winning Olympian, professional All-Star softball pitcher and current sports commentator. Lawrie played college softball at Washington, in which s ...

*Baton Rouge: Lyn Rollins & Yvette Girouard *Tallahassee:

Cara Capuano Cara Capuano is an American sports anchor for ESPNU. Before joining ESPNU in 2008, she was a former sports reporter for FSN. She joined Fox Sports Northwest in August 2004, as a reporter and anchor for the '' Northwest Sports Report'' and the ...

& Cheri Kempf *Athens: Alex Loeb & Megan Willis *Knoxville: Alex Perlman & Francesca Enea *College Station: Tyler Denning &

Amanda Freed Amanda Louise Freed (born December 26, 1979) is an American, former professional softball utility player and pitcher. She played college softball for UCLA, winning the national title for the Bruins in the 1999 Women's College World Series. In t ...

*Gainesville: Kevin Brown & Erin Miller ''Super Regionals'' *Los Angeles:

Beth Mowins Elizabeth Mowins (born May 26, 1967) is an American play-by-play announcer and sports journalist for ESPN, CBS, and Marquee Sports Network. She typically calls women's college sports, and became the second woman to call nationally televised c ...

Jessica Mendoza Jessica Ofelia Mendoza (born November 11, 1980) is an American sportscaster and former softball player. Currently, she serves as an analyst for ESPN's coverage of Major League Baseball and Los Angeles Dodgers coverage on Spectrum SportsNet LA. ...

, Michele Smith, &

Holly Rowe Holly Rowe (born June 16, 1966) is an American sports telecaster for the ESPN sports television network, as a sideline reporter for college football and basketball games. Rowe made Utah Jazz history on October 22, 2021 as the team's first female ...

*Tallahassee: Kevin Brown & Erin Miller *Athens: Alex Loeb & Megan Willis *Gainesville: Tiffany Greene & Amanda Scarborough ''Women's College World Series Finals'' *Beth Mowins, Jessica Mendoza, Michele Smith, & Holly Rowe (tv) *Adam Amin, Amanda Scarborough
Kayla Braud
& Laura Rutledge (ESPN3 Second Screen Experience)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2018 NCAA Division I softball tournament NCAA Division I softball tournament

Tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

NCAA Division I softball tournament The NCAA Division I softball tournament is held annually in May/June and features 64 college softball teams in the United States, culminating in the Women's College World Series (WCWS), which is played in Oklahoma City. Tournament play and team ...

Women's sports in Oklahoma