The long ball got the job done for No. 19 Oregon in its top-25 showdown with No. 22 Missouri at the 2025 Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, California, on Saturday.

Missouri and Baylor both came within a win of advancing to the NCAA Women’s College World Series last season, so they both likely entered the 2025 collegiate softball season feeling as if they had something to prove.

The pop Marlie Giles’ bat made as it connected with a pitch about belt-high had forecasted the inevitable. With a single swing, Giles mashed a two-run homer over the left-field wall, sealing the Birmingham Thunderbolts PGF 18U Premier national championship.

Select Fastpitch and the Birmingham Thunderbolts have emerged from the bevy of outstanding clubs in the PGF National Championships 18U Premier division.

Find the 2021 Tulsa Elite Summer Invite softball photo gallery. Photos by Rob Ferguson of USA TODAY Sports.

Every year since 2011, the weekend following the NCAA Division I Women’s College World Series marks the pilgrimage of some of the top travel softball teams in the country converging in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma to compete in the Annual Tulsa Elite Summer Invite. That first year, 16 teams took to four fields, and today the event has grown to become one of the nation’s top recruiting events of the year. From Wednesday-Sunday, well over 100 college coaches attend the tournament held at Arrowhead Park, offering a single 12-field complex allowing for maximum exposure.

16U Aces Fastpitch Club photos taken at the 2020 Tulsa Elite Summer Invite by Brett Rojo from USA Today Sports/Imagn.

Following the announcement of the Texas Fastpitch League, the Heart of America Elite Fastpitch League (HFL) made a similar announcement that will include club softball teams from 21 states.

Missouri returns to the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic to play Arizona, Oregon State, UC Davis, New Mexico, Califonia, and Seattle.

Every once in a while, DeMarini Aces 16U coach Ryan Taylor has to pinch himself to make sure he isn’t dreaming. It’s a rare luxury to have a pair of identical twins on the same team who both possess top-level talent. Since forming the Aces in 2010, Taylor has coached three sets of identical twins, with the first two going on to Division I schools.

Four days after the firing of Ehren Earleywine, University of Missouri athletic director Jim Sterk announced Gina Fogue will fill the role as the Tigers' interim softball coach. A Mizzou alum, Fogue has spent the past four seasons as an assistant coach on Earleywine's staff.

A day after his firing as Missouri softball head coach, Ehren Earleywine issued a response Saturday regarding his dismissal by the university.

After nearly 12 seasons as the University of Missouri’s head softball coach, Ehren Earleywine was fired by athletic director Jim Sterk on Friday — less than two weeks before the Tigers open their 2018 season. 

Reigning WCWS national champion Oklahoma and UCLA have added some valuable assets behind the dish after picking up their latest verbal commitments.

MISSISSIPPI STATE, Miss. - Gamecock junior Taylor Williams cranked a pinch-hit home run in the eighth to send South Carolina (36-20) to a 7-4 extra-innings victory in the opening game of the 2016 SEC Softball Tournament over sixth-seeded and No. 17/15 Missouri.