Softball 2026

[MikeUMA]

The NCAA shared a picture of the M'women practicing in the football bubble.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18L8W3a4ww/

Serious question: as campus is buried in snow, got me thinking about the field. We don't play a home game until March 20, but what if there's still snow on the field? Does it get plowed/cleared? (It's an artificial turf field, yes?) Or do we postpone until it melts?

You can tell I don't usually follow the team very closely

Season starts in a week: https://umassathletics.com/news/2026/1/ ... 6-schedule
I don't think the MAC has done their preseason poll yet.

[MikeUMA]

Oof. Minutewomen picked next to last.
https://getsomemaction.com/news/2026/2/ ... -poll.aspx

Didn't we used to have a good program?

Tells that the department doesn't care much anymore:
Season-by-season archive page hasn't been touched since 2015 https://umassathletics.com/sports/2016/ ... chive-html
Record book not since 2020 (with 2019 results) https://umassathletics.com/documents/20 ... d_book.pdf

[InnervisionsUMASS]

It is a mix of a few things I think:

- Whiffing on hires - only been two here, Kristi and Danielle.
- Funding - not sure where Softball funding is related to the rest of the NCAA, but knowing UMass I suspect it's on the lower end.
- Location - if you don't get the right hire, then the location becomes a factor.

And lastly...

- We had an absolutely phenomenal and legendary coach in Elaine Sortino. It is possible we were always able to be a program playing well above our level because of her and her coaching and recruiting ability - and we've yet to come anywhere close to replacing any of that. This was evident almost immediately when she passed and we promptly lost out on the recruitment of the Shannon Smith, from Mass, to UK.

[tdmass]

UMass Softball has to be looked at and maybe time to reevaluate the Program. We have played 5 games and scored 2 runs and given up 37. We will struggle to 5 games this year and UMass softball history's best player is our coach, not good!

[UMass1991]

UMass Softball has to be looked at and maybe time to reevaluate the Program. We have played 5 games and scored 2 runs and given up 37. We will struggle to 5 games this year and UMass softball history's best player is our coach, not good!

They beat Kansas 8-0

[fenway617]

After a slow start when they had to play several Florida teams who have the advantage of practicing outside year round. They started 0-6 but have gone 6-2 since with wins over Charleston, Villanova, and Kansas. Outside of the 4 blowout losses to the Florida teams to start the season they have been close in all their other losses.