Moving on up: Wichita State softball has its highest national ranking in program history
The good news continues to roll in for the Wichita State softball team.
After sweeping Tulsa on the road to win their second outright American Athletic Conference championship in the last three seasons, the Shockers received their highest national ranking in program history on Monday.
Wichita State (43-8) moved up to No. 18 in the country, up two spots from last week, in the latest D1Softball rankings. An even higher ranking is possible on Tuesday when the National Fastpitch Coaches Association top-25 poll, which WSU was ranked No. 19 in last week, and the USA Softball Collegiate top-25 poll (WSU was No. 21), are released.
Receiving national recognition can only be a good thing for the Shockers in their crusade to receive a top-16 national seed and potentially host their first NCAA Regional.
Entering the regular-season finale at Kansas (RPI No. 55) on Wednesday, Wichita State is currently ranked No. 18 in the college softball RPI. The Shockers will face either Tulsa (RPI No. 102) or Houston (RPI No. 117) in the AAC tournament semifinals in Tampa, Fla. next Friday, then could potentially have a rematch with UCF (RPI No. 31) in the finals.
The Shockers will likely be in competition with power-conference teams such as Washington (35-10, RPI No. 13), Arkansas (36-14, RPI No. 14), Oregon (35-11, RPI No. 16), Clemson (45-8, RPI No. 17) and Auburn (37-15, RPI No. 20) for the final handful of regional hosting spots.
The 43-win Shockers are three away from tying the program record for most wins in a season, set in 2005. They have registered their highest-ranked win (No. 2 Oklahoma State) and highest-ranked road win (No. 3 Oklahoma State) this season, as well as run-ruled another top-10 team in Arkansas under head coach Kristi Bredbenner.
This story was originally published May 2, 2023 at 7:00 AM.
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