Red-Hot Florida tops USA Today/NFCA poll (4/28)

Red-Hot Florida tops USA Today/NFCA poll (4/28)

Apr 28, 2015 by Brentt Eads
Red-Hot Florida tops USA Today/NFCA poll (4/28)

Riding a 15-game winning streak, Florida is the No. 1 team for the second straight week in the USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll, announced Tuesday by the Association.

Kirsti Merritt helped Florida continue its unbeaten streak. Photos by GatorZone.com
Kirsti Merritt helped Florida continue its unbeaten streak. Photos by GatorZone.com

The Gators (48-4) garnered all but three first-place votes, gathering a total of 29 and 797 points after picking up four wins over nationally-ranked squads. UF defeated in-state foe and then-No. 10 Florida State, 5-0 in a mid-week contest. They rolled into the weekend putting three SEC wins on the board against No. 25 Texas A&M (7-3 / 9-5 / 9-1). During their streak, the Gators are 10-0 against top-25 squads.

Oregon, which picked up the other three first-place votes and 771 points, swept a late season non-conference top-10 series from then No. 9 Louisiana Lafayette. The Ducks (41-5) completed their Pac-12 series sweep of Stanford on Monday with a 6-3 victory on The Farm and then hosted the Ragin’ Cajuns. Oregon defeated Louisiana convincingly in the first two games (8-0 / 10-2) before coming out on top in a 2-1 eight-inning nailbiter in the finale.

Michigan (730 points), Alabama (674 points) and Oklahoma (645 points) all shifted up one to complete the top-five. The Wolverines (45-6) took care of Big Ten business defeating Michigan State 4-3 and sweeping a league road series at Maryland in similar fashion as Oregon. They topped the Terrapins by eight runs in the first two games (8-0 / 10-2) and escaped with a 1-0 win in game three in College Park.

The Crimson Tide (38-11) went 3-1 turning back Troy 5-2 and taking two-of-three in SEC action against Tennessee (2-3 / 3-1 / 10-3), while the Sooners (42-7) posted a 4-1 week. OU trumped North Texas (6-3) to start the week and then went 3-1 in Big 12 road games. Following a 7-1 win at Oklahoma State, OU grabbed the series from Kansas (2-4 in 8 inn. / 13-0 / 7-4) after dropping game one.

The reason for the shift in the top five was LSU suffering its first three-game losing streak of the season. The sixth-ranked Tigers (41-8) fell from No. 3 due to a 0-3 week in SEC play in which they dropped the series finale to Texas A&M (2-5) and the first two to then-No. 15 Missouri (2-7 / 2-10).

UCLA (40-8) and Auburn (44-8) remained at No. 7 and No. 8, while Florida State and Louisiana-Lafayette flip-flopped the final two spots in the top-10.

The Tigers (35-10), on a 10-game winning streak after Sunday’s win over LSU, moved up four more spots to No. 11 and have made a push of nine spots in just two weeks. Two programs moved up three positions in No. 16 Arizona (37-12) and No. 19 James Madison (40-6). The Dukes are Division I’s hottest team having won a school-record 31 games, last dropping a contest on March 8.

The USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll is voted on by 32 NCAA Division I head coaches, one representing each conference.  Current 2015 records are shown and first-place votes are in parentheses.

USA Today/NFCA Division I Softball Poll – April 28, 2015

Rank Team 2015 Record Totals Prev. Rank
1 Florida (29) 48-4 797 1
2 Oregon (3) 41-5 771 2
3 Michigan 45-6 730 4
4 Alabama 38-11 674 5
5 Oklahoma 42-7 645 6
6 LSU 41-8 633 3
7 UCLA 40-8 607 7
8 Auburn 44-8 593 8
9 Florida State 40-12 518 10
10 Louisiana-Lafayette 34-8 466 9
11 Missouri 35-10 453 15
12 Tennessee 36-13 447 11
13 Minnesota 41-8 439 12
14 Georgia 39-13 409 14
15 UCF 44-6 390 13
16 Arizona 37-12 298 19
17 Baylor 34-12 288 16
18 California 34-13 256 20
19 James Madison 40-6 210 22
20 Washington 37-13 204 18
21 Kentucky 29-21 141 17
22 South Alabama 33-9 89 21
23 Notre Dame 39-12 82 24
24 Arizona State 30-18 66 23
25 Texas A&M 34-17 51 25

New to Poll: None

Dropped out: None

Others Receiving Votes:  North Dakota State (44), Utah (36), Kansas (24), USC Upstate (21), CSUN (6), South Carolina