The Notre Dame softball season is coming to a close. And unfortunately, it seems unlikely that they’re going to be going to the postseason beyond their conference tournament, barring any miracles. Even if the currently 23-30-1 Irish manage to make some noise, it seems unlikely they’ll get all the way to the Women’s College World Series.
Notre Dame has never reached the Women's College World Series. While the Fighting Irish softball team has been a consistent contender in the NCAA tournament, they’ve never managed to get past the super regionals and go to Oklahoma City. Still with the event being so close, it begs the question, who has the most WCWS finals appearances?
Who has the most WCWS finals appearances?
It turns out that a couple of teams that used to be in the Pac 12 are the most dominant in the college softball circuit.
UCLA leads the country with 31 appearances, followed by Arizona (25) and Washington (15). The teams used to slug it out on the regular but while the Bruins and Huskies are still conference rivals, Arizona has found a new home in the Big 12.
Unsurprisingly, the Bruins making the finals that often means they’ve also won it the most of anyone. They lead the nation in that category with 12 WCWS wins. Arizona and Oklahoma are tied for second with 8 titles. UCLA actually had another one but it was vacated for various reasons.
The current version of the Women’s College World Series is relatively new, having only existed in this format since 1982.
In all, only 13 teams have ever won the WCWS and three teams, UCLA, Arizona and Oklahoma have accounted for 28 titles among them. No other team has more than two. It seems unlikely that this is the year the Notre Dame softball team will stop their drought.