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 at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City. 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, 20 ...

that neither the

Florida Gators The Florida Gators are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni and its sports fans are often collectively referred to as t ...

nor the Oklahoma Sooners made the Championship Series. The

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

played in their first Women's College World Series Championship Series and became the first

ACC ACC most often refers to: *Atlantic Coast Conference, an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference located in the US *American College of Cardiology, A US-based nonprofit medical association that bestows credentials upon cardiovascular speci ...

team to make the Championship Series. The

Washington Huskies The Washington Huskies are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Washington, located in Seattle. The school competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Pac-1 ...

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 Women's College World Series. ''1. '' (47–7)
''2. '' (50–8)
''3. '' (50–4)
''4. '' (50–3)
''5. '' (44–8)
''6.

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the sta ...

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

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

'' (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 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 1978. The company w ...

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

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

, and on

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

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 Univ ...

made his softball radio debut and joined returning analyst

Leah Amico Leah Marie O'Brien-Amico (born September 9, 1974) is an American, former collegiate All-American, three-time Olympian, left-handed-hitting softball outfielder and sports commentator originally from Chino, California. O'Brien-Amico is best kn ...

for Westwood One.

Television

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

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 Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and the He ...

SEC Network The SEC Network 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 online streaming service owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communication ...

. 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. She played for the Arizona Wildcats from 1993 to 1996 where she won three Women's College World Series champion ...

*Columbia: Brad Muller & Dr. Megan Buning *Tempe: Tiffany Greene & Amanda Scarborough *Seattle:

Eric Collins Eric Collins (born June 16, 1969) is a play-by-play sports announcer, currently the voice of the NBA's Charlotte Hornets on Bally Sports South. Education Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Collins is a graduate of St. Lawrence University. He earned a m ...

& 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 fo ...

Jennie Ritter Jennifer Darlene Ritter (born June 1, 1984) is an American, former collegiate All-American, retired softball pitcher and current sports commentator. She played college softball and was a starting pitcher for the Michigan Wolverines softball f ...

*Norman:

Pam Ward Pam Ward is an on-air personality for the cable sports television network ESPN, serving as one of the play-by-play announcers for ESPN's coverage of the 2012 and 2013 Women's College World Series of Softball. She is a graduate of the University of ...

& 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 a 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 the title of ...

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

Trey Bender Trey Bender is a sportscaster for ESPNU, ESPN Plus, American Sports Network, and a part-time host for Yahoo! Sports Radio. Broadcasting biography Bender calls football, basketball, baseball, and swimming for ESPNU, ESPN Plus, ESPN3, and NBC Univer ...

*Tucson:

Mark Neely Mark Neely is an American sportscaster. He currently serves as a play-by-play announcer for ''ESPN College Football'', ''College Basketball on ESPN'' and ''NBA on ESPN'' and was previously a television announcer for San Diego Padres baseball. ...

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 she ...

*Baton Rouge: Lyn Rollins &

Yvette Girouard Yvette Marie Girouard (born 1954) is an American retired softball coach who was head coach at Southwestern Louisiana (later Louisiana) from 1981 to 2000 and LSU from 2001 to 2011. On March 15, 2019 at the Louisiana softball game vs. the Troy T ...

*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. I ...

*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 a color commentator and analyst for ESPN's coverage of Major League Baseball and Los Angeles Dodgers coverage ...

, Michele Smith, &

Holly Rowe Holly Rowe (born June 16, 1966) is an American sports telecaster currently working for the sports television network ESPN. Rowe is best known as a sideline reporter for college football games which are telecast on ESPN. Rowe made Utah Jazz team ...

*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 concentr ...