The 2023 NCAA Division I softball tournament was held from May 19 through June 8, 2023, as the final part of the

2023 NCAA Division I softball season The 2023 NCAA Division I softball season, play of college softball in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the NCAA Division I, Division I level, began in February 2023. The season progressed throu ...

. The tournament culminated with the 2023

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 ...

USA Softball 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 ...

. Charlotte, Eastern Illinois,

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, North Carolina Central,

Northern Colorado Northern Colorado is the name for a region in the state of Colorado and a proposed state in the northeastern portion of Colorado. Region Northern Colorado is a region in the northern portion of Colorado. It borders northwestern Colorado, nort ...

Northern Kentucky Northern Kentucky is an urban area in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky consisting of the southern part of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. The three main counties of the area are Boone County, Kentucky, Boone, Kent ...

, and

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

made their

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 ...

debuts.

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since

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, while

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

failed to make the tournament for the first time since

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

Format

A total of 64 teams will enter the tournament, with 32 of them receiving an automatic bid by either winning their conference's tournament or by finishing in first place in their conference. The remaining 32 bids will be at-large, with selections extended by the NCAA Selection Committee.

Bids

The Big West and West Coast Conference bids were awarded to the regular-season champion. All other conferences had their automatic bid go to the conference tournament winner.

Automatic

At-large

By conference

National seeds

Sixteen national seeds were announced on the Selection Show, on Sunday, May 14 at 7 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 ...

. Teams in italics advanced to Super Regionals. Teams in bold advanced to the

. 1.

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

3.
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16. '' Clemson''

Regionals and Super Regionals

The Regionals took place May 19–21. The Super Regionals will take place May 25–28.

Norman Super Regional

Durham Super Regional

Tuscaloosa Super Regional

Knoxville Super Regional

Tallahassee Super Regional

Stillwater Super Regional

Seattle Super Regional

Salt Lake City Super Regional

Women's College World Series

The Women's College World Series was held June 1 through June 9 in Oklahoma City.

Participants

Bracket

''Game times are based on the local time ( CDT) in Oklahoma City''

Game results

Finals

Game 1

Game 2

All-tournament Team

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

Record by conference

Media coverage

Radio

For the third consecutive year

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 every game in the Women's College World Series. Ryan Radtke and

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 ...

returned as two of the broadcasters. Chris Plank and Destinee Martinez worked select games, while Radtke and Amico called the Championship Series while Taylor Davis worked as a field reporter.

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 ...

held exclusive rights to the tournament. The network aired games across

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

, 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 ...

ESPN+ ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...

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 ...

Longhorn Network Longhorn Network (LHN) was an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between The University of Texas at Austin, ESPN and Learfield (formerly IMG College), and was operated by ESPN (itself owned jointly by The Walt Disney Compa ...

, and

ACC Network ACC Network (ACCN) is an American multinational subscription-television channel owned and operated by ESPN Inc. Dedicated to coverage of the Atlantic Coast Conference, it was announced in July 2016 and launched on August 22, 2019. The channel ...

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

Broadcast assignments

''Regionals'' *Norman: Jenn Hildreth & Carol Bruggeman *Los Angeles:

Clay Matvick Clay Matvick (born August 12, 1973 in Saint Cloud, Minnesota) is an American sportscaster, who works primarily as a play-by-play announcer for ABC and the ESPN networks. Background Matvick graduated from Princeton High School in 1991. He rece ...

& Natasha Watley *Tallahassee: Courtney Lyle &

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 ...

*Knoxville: Mike Couzens & Kayla Braud *Tuscaloosa: Roy Philpott &

Aleshia Ocasio Aleshia Ines Ocasio (born August 15, 1996) is an American professional softball player for the Blaze of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL). She played college softball at Florida. Ocasio previously played in the Athletes Unlimited Sof ...

*Stillwater: Matt Schumaker & Erin Miller *Seattle: Maura Sheldon & Nicole Mendes *Durham: Angel Gray & Raine Wilson ''Super Regionals'' *Norman: Eric Frede & Madison Shipman *Tallahassee: Courtney Lyle & Danielle Lawrie *Knoxville:

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 ...

*Tuscaloosa: Mike Couzens & Kayla Braud ''Women's College World Series'' *Kevin Brown, Amanda Scarborough & Courtney Lyle (afternoons & late games) *Beth Mowins, Jessica Mendoza, Michele Smith & Holly Rowe (primetime) ''Regionals'' *Stanford: Mark Neely & Amanda Scarborough *Baton Rouge: Alex Perlman & Francesca Enea *Fayetteville: Drew Carter &

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 ...

*Evanston: Tyler Denning & Jennie Ritter *Austin: Alex Loeb &

Cat Osterman Catherine Leigh Osterman (born April 16, 1983) is a retired American softball player and currently the general manager of the Volts for the inaugural 2025 season of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL). Osterman pitched on the United Stat ...

*Athens: Chuckie Kempf & Brittany McKinney *Salt Lake City: Kevin Fitzgerald & Kenzie Fowler *Clemson:

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 ...

& Madison Shipman ''Super Regionals'' *Stillwater: Kevin Brown & Amanda Scarborough *Seattle: Mark Neely & Carol Bruggeman *Durham: Pam Ward & Jenny Dalton-Hill *Salt Lake City: Tiffany Greene & Erin Miller ''Women's College World Series Finals'' *Beth Mowins, Jessica Mendoza, Michele Smith & Holly Rowe

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:NCAA Division I Softball Tournament

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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 ...

Women's sports in Oklahoma