Texas Dominates Softball From High School to WCWS Championship
The state of Texas is having an outstanding softball year as they have teams at every level of the game winning championships and bringing back hardware to the Lone Star State.
Five Texas High School Softball Programs Nationally Ranked
At the high school Division I level, Melissa High School is the No. 1 team in the nation, according to Sports Illustrated and MaxPreps.
Melissa recently won their second consecutive Texas Conference 5A Division I State Title after they defeated No. 23 nationally ranked Barbers Hill, 4-2. The Cardinals were an impressive 38-1 and went undefeated in their district.
At the high school Division II level, No. 4 Lake Creek (Montgomery) crushed Hallsville 12-1 and captured the Texas Conference 5A Division II State Title. Lake Creek is ranked No. 1 within the state of Texas rankings as the Lions are undefeated, 37-0.
Meanwhile, No. 8 Coachoma became the first Texas high school softball program to win three consecutive titles when the defeated Lexington, 6-1, for the 3A Texas State championship. On Coachoma's team are two Longhorn commits in two-way pitcher Hannah Wells (title game MVP) and Mia Clemmer. Coachoma was 35-1 this season and went undefeated in their district, 12-0.
No. 14 Kingswood secured its first Texas Conference 6A Division II championship as it outlasted Forney, 4-1. Kingswood is 37-4-1 overall, 12-2 in their district, and ranked third amongst Texas schools.
NJCAA World Series Appearances for Texas Teams
The state of Texas also had a successful showing at the NJCAA DI World Series as five schools ranked among the 20 programs selected, including: No. 4 Grayson CC, No. 6 Odessa, No. 8 Paris, No. 10 Trinity Valley, and No. 20 Navarro.
NCAA Division III World Series Contenders and Division II Champions
At the Division III level, Texas Lutheran competed in the World Series after winning the Ithaca regional and their super regional, where they eliminated in-state rival East Texas Baptist.
Texas Lutheran's program has a history of postseason triumph as they have consistently made the World Series since 2019, won the national title in 2019, and were runners-up in 2021.
On May 28, University of Texas-Tyler won back-to-back national titles after they defeated the University of Tampa 6-0 in game one and 3-0 in game two. UT-Tyler is in elite company as the fifth school in DII history to win consecutive titles.
NCAA DIvision I World Series Showdown Between Texas and Texas Tech
Starting on Wednesday, Texas and Texas Tech will square off for the 2025 national title. Since the Greatest Show on Dirt moved from a single title game to a best-of-three format in 2005, there has never been an in-state showdown.
Texas and Texas Tech are both vying for the chance to bring the ilustrious softball title home to the state of Texas for the first time. The Longhorns have appeared in the World Series eight times and yet have never brought the trophy back to Austin.
Texas Tech has never been this far in the post season. The Red Raiders set records this year as they won the Big 12 Regular season title, conference title, their regional, super regional, and are now in the championship series at the World Series.
Game one of the series takes place on Wednesday, June 4 at 8 pm EST on ESPN and ESPN+.
More News: UT Tyler Wins Back-to-Back Division II Softball National Titles
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More News: Texas Tech vs Texas Softball: What to Expect in WCWS All-Texas Championship Series
Allison Smith is an expert in leadership and organizational behavior in collegiate and professional women’s sports. Smith is a professor (Georgia State University), researcher, and writer. Smith holds a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in Kinesiology and Sport Studies. Smith’s research centers on combatting the underrepresentation of women leaders in sport, lack of organizational structure for work life integration for sport employees, and lack of programming and oversight for preparing athletes to transition to life after sport. Since graduating with a bachelor’s in journalism in 2011, Smith has sought opportunities to write about sports as a contributing writer focused on the growth of women’s collegiate, Olympic, and professional sports in this new age and movement for multiple outlets including Athletic Director U, and now Forbes.com. As a former Division I and II pitcher and Division III pitching coach Smith will bring unique insight and expertise to Softball on SI.
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