We continue our year-end look at the Top 10 Softball Stories of 2025…  Here is the schedule for this list which will run the rest of December and into January 2025, when we’ll publish the No. 1 Softball Story of The Year:

Click on the links of those previously posted to see what we’ve covered so far!

• Top 10 Softball Stories of the Year: #10 – Tue, Dec. 23, 2025
• Top 10 Softball Stories of the Year: #9 – Wed, Dec. 24, 2025
• Top 10 Softball Stories of the Year: #8 – Thu, Dec. 25, 2025
• Top 10 Softball Stories of the Year: #7 – Fri, Dec. 26, 2025
• Top 10 Softball Stories of the Year: #6 – Sat, Dec. 27, 2025
• Top 10 Softball Stories of the Year: #5 – Sun, Dec. 28, 2025
• Top 10 Softball Stories of the Year: #4 – Mon, Dec. 29, 2025
• Top 10 Softball Stories of the Year: #3 – Tue, Dec. 30, 2025
• Top 10 Softball Stories of the Year: #2 – Wed, Dec. 31, 2025
• Top 10 Softball Stories of the Year: #1 – Thu, Jan. 1, 2025

Also, on Jan. 2, 2026, Line Drive Softball will list all the Top 10 stories in a list and then on Jan. 3^rd we’ll will run the Other Stories Considered List.

For each topic (story), an article or more that we ran earlier this year on Line Drive Softball is reposted along with any other articles that may be tied into the subject listed that day.

So how were the Top 10 picked?

We looked at what were considered the most memorable and important stories of the year as they impacted the sport.

In researching the Top 10, we talked to those in softball, including college and travel ball coaches, other media members and you—the fastpitch community.

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball

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Nothing lasts forever and this year the Oklahoma Sooners amazing streak of winning four national championships ended, but what a great run it was!

In fact, last year our No. 2 Story of the Year was titled:  Oklahoma Sooners Make It Four NCAA D1 Championships in a Row (Dec. 31, 2024).

Here’s part of what that article contained:

On June 6, 2024, the Oklahoma Sooners made softball history, winning its fourth straight NCAA D1 title.

It was also the eighth overall softball championship for OU, tying the school with Arizona for the second most ever—UCLA has won a total of 13, but, interestingly, there were no streaks more than two years.

In college sports history, there have been longer championship streaks… for example:

• • The North Carolina women’s soccer team won nine titles in a row from 1986 through 1994.
  • UCLA men’s basketball won seven consecutive titles from 1967-1973 under legendary coach John Wooden.
  • The North Dakota State Bisons won five straight Div. I FCS football titles between 2011-2015.

But in college softball, Oklahoma now holds the record at four straight and will be going for 5 in a row in 2025.

“It’s never been done before,” says D1 Softball’s Justin McLeod. “That alone tells you how difficult and impressive it is. Oklahoma made winning the national championship look so easy for so long that they almost understated what winning four in a row looks like.”

“I said this in an article earlier this week, but there are five young women— Jayda Coleman, Tiare Jennings, Kinzie Hansen, Nicole May, and Rylie Boone—that literally do not know what it’s like to end their college season with a loss… because they never did it!”

And a tip of the cap to Head Coach Patty Gasso, who won her eighth national title this year, to tie Mike Candrea of Arizona for the most by a coach in Div. 1 softball history.

Ironically, Oklahoma defeated Texas on June 6, 2024 and that series was a rematch of the 2022 Women’s College World Series.

This year, the Texas Longhorns did break through to win its first national championship and we’ll now look at how Head Coach Mike White’s team took home the D1 National Championship…

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Preseason 

Although a runner-up in 2024, Texas was a preseason favorites with a lot of the championship game talent returning including outstanding pitcher Teagan Kavan.

Two key preseason polls had UT very high: one ranked No. 1 and the other No. 2. 

Here are the two preseason Top 25’s:

ESPN.com/USA Softball’s Preseason Top 25 Poll (Jan. 22, 2025)

D1Softball Preseason Top 25

Rank	Team	Final 2024 Record	Final 2024 RPI Rank
1	Florida	54-15	3
2	Texas	55-10	1
3	Oklahoma	59-7	2
4	UCLA	43-12	6
5	Oklahoma State	49-12	9
6	Tennessee	44-12	10
7	Duke	52-9	4
8	Florida State	46-16	14
9	Texas A&M	44-15	13
10	Arkansas	37-18	18
11	LSU	44-17	5
12	Arizona	37-18-1	19
13	Texas Tech	29-21	39
14	Nebraska	30-23	48
15	Georgia	43-19	11
16	Virginia Tech	40-14-1	20
17	Alabama	39-20	12
18	Oregon	30-21	30
19	Northwestern	35-13	28
20	Michigan	43-18	34
21	Baylor	36-23	16
22	Stanford	50-17	7
23	Boston	53-6-1	36
24	Liberty	38-25	31
25	Penn State	35-20	38

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Winning It All

After a tremendous regular season, Texas beat Ole Miss 7-6 in the SEC Tournament but lost badly to Texas A&M in a five-inning run rule game, 14-2.

Then, however, the Longhorns put it all together.

Texas rolled through its NCAA Regional, run-ruling Eastern Illinois (10-2) and Michigan (16-4) before blanking Central Florida 9-0.

Next up: the Super Regional best-of-three series against Clemson.

Texas lost the first game 7-4 to the Tigers and could have had its season ended in a nail-biter that went 10 innings but UT pulled out a 7-5 win and in the deciding third game squeaked out a 7-6 victory to make it to the College World Series.

There, the Longhorns beat Florida 3-0, Oklahoma 4-2 and Tennessee 2-0 to make it to the best-of three finals against Texas Tech.

Game 1:

Texas won the first game 2-1 as Texas’ two-time All-American Reese Atwood swung at a 3-0 pitch at eye level to drive  in both Kayden Henry and Mia Scott with a two-out single off All-American Red Raider pitcher NiJaree Canady to give Texas a 2-1 advantage that would hold up.

Pitcher Teagan Kavan was spectacular, going all seven innings and giving up just three hits, no earned runs while striking out three and giving up one walk.

Game 2:

The Longhorns trailed 4-1 going into the top of the 7th inning but made it close with two runs and had Leighann Goode, representing the game-tying run, on third base but Texas couldn’t tie the game up as Texas Tech won 4-3.

In the loss, Mia Scott hit a home run and went 2-for-2. Texas had four pitchers in the game with starter Cambria Salmon starting and giving up two earned runs before Mac Morgan, Citialy Gutierrez and Teagan Kaven didn’t give up any earned runs but Texas Tech would score two in the 5th and two in the 6th inning to take Game 2 and push the championship to a deciding Game 3.

Game 3:

Fortunately for the Longhorns, the finale of the season–and the contest that gave them its first National Championship, was all but decided at the first inning as Texas scored five runs.

UT plated another run in the 3rd inning and four more in the 4th courtesy of a Mia Scott grand slam to make it 10-0 and, despite Texas Tech getting three runs in the top of the 5th and another in the top of the 7th, the final score was 10-4.

Texas finished the season 56-12 and win the title thanks to the big bats of Henry, who went 3-for-4 and scored two runs and Scott, who went 2-for-3 with four RBIs and two runs scored. Katie Stewart was also proficient with the stick as she went 2-for-4 with two RBIs.

Kavan was once again spectacular in the circle, going all seven innings and giving up no earned runs (UT had three errors).

The junior right-hander went 28-5 on the season with four saves, a 2.24 ERA and had 227 strikeouts in 200 innings. Impressively, she pitched 31 2/3rd scoreless inning during the World Series and went 4-0 to be named the World Series Most Outstanding Player.

*** Click HERE to on the Texas Longhorns season via the NCAA website

Final Rankings

Of course Texas was the No. 1 team in the final rankings… here’s how they looked overall:

2025 NFCA/GoRout Division I Top 25 Coaches Poll (Final)

The 2025 NFCA/GoRout Division I Top 25 Coaches Poll is voted on by 31 NCAA Division I head coaches with one representing each of the NCAA’s Division I Conferences. Polls are released Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m. throughout the season. Records reflect games played through June 6, 2025.

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ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll

2025 Season – FINAL – June 10

Parenthesis denotes first place votes.

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On to 2026

2025… what a season!

Some fun questions to ponder heading into the 2026 season:

— Can Texas make it two in a row, especially with Kavan and several offensive standouts returning?

— Will Oklahoma be back to make it 5 titles in 6 years?

— Or will some traditional powers like Florida, UCLA, Tennessee, Oregon, Florida State capitalize on their strong 2025 season to break through?

Time will tell, but one thing’s for sure: the 2026 won’t lack for drama and excitement as college softball continues to grow and draw big TV audiences.

Want proof?

The 2025 Women’s College World Series set all-time viewership records, averaging 1.3 million viewers across ESPN platforms and delivering a peak of 2.4 million for the championship game!

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball