NCAA Softball Tournament regional round winners and losers: SEC dominates while ACC stumbles

Just 16 teams remain in the 2026 NCAA Softball Tournament after a wild opening weekend of regional play. Across the country, fans witnessed upsets, incredible highlights and record-breaking performances.

Stetson upset Florida State to open the tournament, and while the Seminoles rallied out of the loser’s bracket they ultimately lost their home regional to UCF after a replay review found that a runner left second base early, wiping three runs off the board. Elsewhere, Akron and UNC-Greensboro picked up their first-ever NCAA Tournament wins. The Zips defeated South Alabama and the Spartans upset Clemson.

One of the stars of the weekend was Nebraska’s Jordy Frahm. From the circle, she struck out 24 batters across 11 innings and allowed just one hit all weekend. At the plate, she hit 3-for-9 and scored a pair of runs.

At Texas Tech, Mia Williams became the first player in program history to record at least 20 stolen bases and 20 home runs in a single season.

Before moving on to super regionals, let’s reflect on the weekend that was in softball. Here are the big winners and losers from the regional round:

NCAA Softball tournament regional winners

The SEC

Considered the best conference in the sport throughout the season, the SEC lived up to its billing during opening weekend. On the first day of regionals, the SEC went 12-0. Through the first 20 games of the tournament, the SEC was 20-0.

Ultimately, a few teams from the conference — South Carolina, Texas A&M and Ole Miss — would come up short, but the SEC still put nine teams into the Super Regionals. That’s the largest number of teams one conference has ever had to advance to the second weekend of the softball tournament.

The SEC is guaranteed to send at least three teams to the College World Series in Oklahoma City, as it will have in-conference super regional matchups with Alabama vs. LSU, Oklahoma vs. Mississippi State and Tennessee vs. Georgia on tap this weekend.

The Big 12

If the SEC is the best conference in college softball, the Big 12 might be right behind it. The league has four teams advancing to Super Regionals despite only having two hosts during the opening weekend. Oklahoma State and Texas Tech were able to win their home regionals, but Arizona State and Central Florida pulled off impressive road upsets to advance.

UCF won its second game over Florida State on Sunday with strong defense and timely offense, while the bat of Brooklyn Ulrich sent Arizona State into the supers when she hit a walk-off grand slam against Texas A&M. Ulrich’s dinger pushed the Sun Devils’ lead to eight runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, triggering a run rule

UCLA's Megan Grant

The UCLA utility star came into regional play already owning the single-season home run record for college softball with 38 bombs. She added to that total in matchups against South Carolina on May 16 and May 17, sending two more homers over fences in Los Angeles. Grant’s dinger on Sunday, her 40th of the season, was a grand slam.

In all, Grant had three hits, four walks and eight RBI in the regional round. It took 31 years before Grant came along and broke Laura Espinoza’s single-season record for home runs. If UCLA keeps playing and Grant keeps launching balls over the fence, she’ll make the record hard to reach for the next challenger.

Mississippi State's Alyssa Faircloth

Mississippi State advanced out of the Eugene Regional hosted by Oregon, and the pitching of ace Alyssa Faircloth was a big reason why. On Saturday against the Ducks, Faircloth struck out 10 batters while notching the first no-hitter of her career and the first no-hitter in program history for the Bulldogs to come in NCAA Tournament play. The lefty from Northport, Alabama followed that up by striking out 14 and allowing just two hits on Sunday against Saint Mary’s.

Heading into the postseason, fans heard a lot about great pitchers like NiJaree Canady, Maya Johnson and Karlyn Pickens, but Faircloth might be the next star to watch in the circle.

Losers

The ACC

It was a rough weekend for the Atlantic Coast Conference. The ACC put eight teams into the tournament and has just one advancing to the supers in Duke, which had to defeat Arizona twice on Sunday at home in Durham to pull it off.

Virginia Tech nearly lost to Akron and suffered two lopsided losses to LSU in a bracket many thought looked winnable. FSU — the ACC champs — lost to Stetson and UCF to get eliminated in its home ballpark in Tallahassee. Louisville was eliminated by mid-major programs with losses to Grand Canyon and South Dakota State. And Clemson was shut out twice.

Duke is now the ACC’s only chance of making the College World Series. The Blue Devils will go on the road to play at Arkansas this weekend.

Texas A&M and Ole Miss

For the second straight year, the Aggies lost their regional at home, losing twice to visiting Arizona State. The Sun Devils got a one-run victory on Saturday and then, as previously mentioned, walked the Aggies off on Sunday. A year ago, Texas A&M lost their regional in College Station to Liberty.

Another SEC team that fell short was Mississippi, which had Texas Tech on the ropes on Saturday, leading 8-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning. Then the Red Raiders’ bats came alive and they went on to win 10-9 in extras. Texas Tech became the first team this century when trailing by eight or more runs to win an NCAA Tournament game. The previous 640 teams in that position had lost. Texas Tech then comfortably won 14-2 on Sunday to clinch the regional with Kaitlyn Terry and NiJaree Canady on the mound.