The 2022 NCAA Division I softball tournament was held from May 20 through June 9, 2022, as the final part of the 2022 NCAA Division I softball season. The tournament culminated with the 2022

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. Eight teams participate in the WCWS, which begins with a double-elimination tournament. In other wo ...

USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium OGE Energy Field at the USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium is a softball-specific ballpark located inside the USA Softball Hall of Fame Complex in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. It seats 13,000 and is the site of the annual Women's Colleg ...

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

Format

A total of 64 teams entered the tournament, with 32 of them receiving an automatic bid by either winning their

conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

's tournament or by finishing in first place in their conference. The remaining 32 bids were issued at-large, with selections extended by the NCAA Selection Committee.

Bids

The Big West, Mountain West, Pac-12 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

16 National Seeds were announced on the Selection Show, on Sunday, May 15 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 fo ...

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

. 1.

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

2.
3. '
4. '
5.

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

6.
7.
8. ''

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

''
9.
10. '' Clemson''
11.
12. '
13.

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

14.
15.
16. '

Regionals and Super Regionals

The Regionals took place May 20–22. The Super Regionals took place May 26–29.

Norman Super Regional

Tempe Super Regional

Los Angeles Super Regional

Fayetteville Super Regional

Blacksburg Super Regional

Stanford Super Regional

Played at Boyd & Jill Smith Family Stadium in

Stanford, California Stanford is a census-designated place (CDP) in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is the home of Stanford University. The population was 21,150 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. Stanford is ...

Stillwater Super Regional

Starkville Super Regional

Played at Nusz Park in

Starkville, Mississippi Starkville is a city in, and the county seat of, Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, United States. Mississippi State University is a land-grant institution and is located partially in Starkville but primarily in an adjacent unincorporated area desig ...

Women's College World Series

The Women's College World Series was held June 2 through June 9 in Oklahoma City.

Participants

Bracket

Game results

Championship game

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 second consecutive year

Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and ...

provided nationwide radio coverage of every game in the Women's College World Series. Ryan Radtke and Leah Amico returned as two of the broadcasters. Chris Plank and Destinee Martinez worked select games, while Radtke and Amico called the Championship Series.

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 ...

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

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

, 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 Hears ...

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 ...

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 holds ...

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

, 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 o ...

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

Broadcast assignments

''Regionals'' *Norman: Tiffany Greene & Erin Miller *Tallahassee: Mike Couzens & Kayla Braud *Blacksburg:

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 ...

& Jenny Dalton-Hill *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 for ...

Madison Shipman Madison Shipman (born 1992) is an American former professional softball player. She played college softball at Tennessee. Playing career She attended Valencia High School and she later attended the University of Tennessee, where she played for ...

*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 ...

& Kenzie Fowler *Tuscaloosa: Alex Perlman & Francesca Enea *Stillwater: Alex Loeb &

Cat Osterman Catherine Leigh Osterman (born April 16, 1983) is a retired American softball player. Osterman pitched on the United States women's national softball team that won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and silver medal at the 2008 and 2020 Su ...

*Tempe:

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 ...

& Michele Smith ''Super Regionals'' *Norman: Pam Ward & Jenny Dalton-Hill *Blacksburg: Eric Frede, Madison Shipman & Jalyn Johnson *Fayetteville:

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 on ...

, 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 ...

*Los Angeles: Courtney Lyle & Danielle Lawrie ''Women's College World Series'' *Beth Mowins, Jessica Mendoza, Michele Smith & Holly Rowe (afternoons) *Kevin Brown, Amanda Scarborough & Andraya Carter (evenings) ''Regionals'' *Evanston: Matt Schumacker &

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 ...

*Clemson: Jenn Hildreth & Carol Bruggeman *Knoxville: 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 sh ...

*Durham:

Clay Matvick Clay Matvick (born August 12, 1973 in St. Cloud, Minnesota, Saint Cloud, Minnesota) is an American sportscaster, who works primarily as a play-by-play announcer for American Broadcasting Company, ABC and the ESPN networks. Background Matvick gra ...

& Brittany McKinney *Seattle: Mark Neely &

Amanda Scarborough Amanda Marie Scarborough (born May 10, 1986) is an American sports broadcaster for ESPN and former softball player. Playing college softball at Texas A&M, Scarborough was a two-time NFCA All-American, the 2005 Big 12 Conference Player of the Year, ...

*Gainesville: Sam Gore &

Sierra Romero Sierra Joy Romero (born March 19, 1994) is a Mexican American professional softball player. She formerly was a volunteer assistant softball coach for the Oregon Ducks softball team. She played college softball for Michigan from 2013 to 2016, whe ...

*Columbia: Angel Gray & Tori Vidales *Orlando: Tyler Denning & Nicole Mendes ''Super Regionals'' *Stillwater: Kevin Brown, Amanda Scarborough & Andraya Carter *Tempe: Mike Couzens & Kayla Braud *Starkville: Tiffany Greene & Erin Miller *Stanford: Mark Neely & Carol Bruggeman ''Women's College World Series Finals'' *Beth Mowins, Jessica Mendoza, Michele Smith & Holly Rowe

References

{{2021–22 NCAA Division I championships navbox 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 ...