The NCAA News - News and Features

May 12, 1997

Division I

Defending champ ranked No. 1

Event: 1997 Division I Women's Softball Championship.

Overview: Defending champion and No. 1-ranked Arizona opened the year with a school-record 30-game winning streak. Through 52 games, the team hit .383, equal to the NCAA season record the Wildcats set in 1995. Alison Johnsen tops the Division I individual batting list at .541 .... Fresno State, ranked second nationally in the coaches' poll, was the last team to beat the Wildcats (April 6). The Bulldogs' Robyn Yorke is third all-time in NCAA hits .... No. 3 South Carolina set a single-season NCAA record for consecutive wins, taking 38 straight from February 22 to April 5. The Lady Gamecocks have won 57 games, tops in the division this year. Trinity Johnson leads the nation in strikeouts, averaging 12.0 per game .... UCLA is led by pitcher B'Ann Burns, the Bruins' career innings-pitched leader (732.1). Freshman Stacey Nuveman has a school-record 15 home runs .... Iowa was undefeated in the Big 10 Conference through 17 league games. If the Hawkeyes, who have outhit opponents by a 2-1 margin, can complete conference play with an unblemished record, it will be a Big Ten first.

Field: Thirty-two teams. Eight teams are seeded, and one is placed at each of eight regional sites. Four teams play at each of the regional sites in a double-elimination tournament. The finals will include the eight regional winners.

Dates and sites: Regionals will be May 16-18 on the campuses of competing institutions. The finals will be May 22-26 at the Amateur Softball Association Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.

Television coverage: The semifinals will be televised live on ESPN2 at noon (Eastern time) May 25. The second game will air 45 minutes after the conclusion of the first game. The championship game will be televised on ESPN2 at 2 p.m. May 26.

Information/results: The fax-on-demand telephone number is 770/399-3060, passcode 1915. Only Women's College World Series games will be posted; the request number for schedule and scores is 5155. Request numbers for complete statistics from Game Nos. 1-15 are 5156 through 5170. Results also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. Regional scores and pairings will appear in May 26 issue of The NCAA News. Championship results will appear in the June 2 issue.