The 1983 National Collegiate women's slow-pitch softball championship was held in

Graham, North Carolina Graham is a city in Alamance County, North Carolina, United States. It is part of the Burlington, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census the population was 17,153. It is the county seat of Alamance County. History ...

, near

Raleigh Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeas ...

, on May 5–7. This was the first year after the demise of the

AIAW The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was founded in 1971 to govern collegiate women's athletics in the United States and to administer national championships (see AIAW Champions). It evolved out of the Commission on Interc ...

, which had conducted the previous two national title tournaments in 1981 and 1982. The

Amateur Softball Association An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, self-taught, user-generated, DIY, and hobbyist. History His ...

stepped in to fill the void by organizing the 1983 tournament and another in 1984. Those four years were the only time that major college slow-pitch teams competed for national collegiate titles, although small NAIA schools and junior colleges also conducted their own slow-pitch championships into the 1990s. The

had lost its struggle with the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

, which vanquished the women's collegiate athletic organization after a year of dual crowning of champions in women's sports. Although the NCAA began sponsoring fast-pitch softball in 1982, it opted not to organize slow-pitch.

Teams

The

double-elimination tournament A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost ''two'' games or matches. It stands in contrast to a single-elimina ...

included 13 teams, with the top five seeded in the order shown: # Florida # Florida State # East Carolina # South Florida # Northern Kentucky :: Fourth-seeded

South Florida South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of th ...

fought through the losers' bracket after losing its third game. South Florida won five in a row after that, including two wins in the final against two-time defending champion Florida State. The final if-necessary game went an extra inning to end in a 4-3 South Florida win, giving the team a 7-1 record in the tournament. Ellen Peterson of South Florida was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament. This was to be the last slow-pitch game ever played by the Florida State Lady Seminoles, who switched to fast-pitch the following year. South Florida successfully defended its championship in 1984.

Bracket

Source:

Ranking

The placings of Capital University, Georgia Southern, North Carolina A&T, Northern Kentucky and West Florida depend on the game results that have not been retrieved.

References

{{AIAW Women's College World Series College softball championships

Teams

Bracket

Ranking

See also

References