No. 6 Arizona opened the NCAA regional roundup with a 7-5 win over Marshall in the Durham Regional, and it did it behind one of the day’s biggest individual performances. Grace Jenkins drove in six runs and hit two home runs, while Sereniti Trice went 3-for-3 as Arizona moved into the winners’ bracket and set up a 1 p.m. ET matchup with Duke the next day.
The top-seeded and near-top-seeded teams mostly handled business across the bracket board. No. 6 Ole Miss survived a late push from Boston University for an 8-6 win in the Lubbock Regional after leading 8-2 in the third inning, then watching Boston score three runs in the top of the seventh on two homers and an RBI double before Ole Miss escaped with a 1-3-4 double play, its program-record 29th double play of the season. Stanford also advanced in Stillwater, beating Princeton 8-2 behind a four-run second inning and a 3-for-3 day from River Mahler, who doubled and singled twice.
In Austin, No. 8 Wisconsin needed every bit of a tense night to get past Baylor 2-1. The game was scoreless entering the bottom of the sixth, when Alivia Bark dropped down a squeeze that scored Claire Calmes and put Wisconsin in front. Baylor answered in the top of the seventh with back-to-back doubles to tie it 1-1, but Hannah Conger ended it in the bottom of the ninth with a shot over the right fielder’s head. The win sent Wisconsin on after a game that never gave either side much margin.
Texas A&M turned its regional opener into the day’s most lopsided result, beating UConn 17-3 in College Station after a 13-run frame in the bottom of the second inning. Ariel Kowalewski hit a grand slam, Mya Perez added a two-run homer in the fourth, and the Aggies finished with five home runs and 14 hits. Georgia Tech joined the winners’ bracket after edging No. 7 Texas State 2-1 in Gainesville, with Addison Leschber scoring on a passed ball in the sixth and Madalyn Johnson throwing a complete game with seven strikeouts on three hits over seven innings.
Alabama closed the slate with a run-rule 8-0 shutout of USC Upstate. The top-ranked Crimson Tide scored six runs on six hits in the bottom of the second, got home runs from Audrey Vandagriff and Marlie Giles, and received a complete game from Kaitlyn Pallozzi. In a day full of regional openers and first-round swings, the results mostly sorted the contenders from the rest — and set up a sharper second day for teams that avoided the early stumble.
For the bracket, that means winners’ games are now carrying the weight. Arizona gets Duke next, and the rest of the regional fields will spend the next round trying to stay out of elimination with the season tightening fast.
