Breaking down the SEC’s WCWS field by the numbers
The SEC is sending five teams to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, and the league’s depth has been on full display through Regionals and Super Regionals. Mississippi State, Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas and Alabama all punched their tickets, and they mostly got there in different ways.
Mississippi State opens against No. 11 Texas Tech at noon ET Thursday on ESPN. No. 7 Tennessee draws No. 2 Texas at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN. No. 1 Alabama and No. 8 UCLA play at 7 p.m. on ESPN2. No. 5 Arkansas and No. 4 Nebraska close out the night at 9:30 p.m. on ESPN2.
A look at the postseason numbers shows just how each SEC team stacks up across the board statistically. Arkansas leads the pack offensively. The Razorbacks have actually saved a whole game’s worth of innings through regionals and super regionals, with five games ending in run-rule wins for a total of seven innings.
Alabama’s pitching staff has barely allowed any runs. Mississippi State is grinding through and doing it with great control. Tennessee is making the big swings and supporting a pitching staff that strikes out and induces weak contact as well as any.
Texas is the most balanced out of these five teams; the Longhorns crack the top three in four offensive rate stats and three pitching rate stats.
Here is the NCAA Tournament stat breakdown, category by category.
The Offense
Slash Line
Team | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Arkansas | .423 | .539 | .754 | 1.293 |
Texas | .321 | .380 | .562 | .942 |
Alabama | .311 | .393 | .545 | .938 |
Tennessee | .260 | .349 | .520 | .869 |
Mississippi State | .282 | .352 | .460 | .812 |
Run Production
Team | Runs | Hits | RBI | Total Bases |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Arkansas | 51 | 55 | 49 | 98 |
Texas | 35 | 52 | 32 | 91 |
Alabama | 31 | 41 | 28 | 72 |
Mississippi State | 30 | 49 | 25 | 80 |
Tennessee | 20 | 33 | 19 | 66 |
Power
Team | HR | 2B |
|---|---|---|
Arkansas | 10 | 11 |
Texas | 9 | 10 |
Tennessee | 9 | 6 |
Alabama | 8 | 7 |
Mississippi State | 7 | 10 |
Plate Discipline
Team | BB Drawn | K (fewer is better) |
|---|---|---|
Arkansas | 32 | 8 |
Alabama | 16 | 21 |
Mississippi State | 15 | 18 |
Tennessee | 15 | 21 |
Texas | 13 | 30 |
Speed
Team | Stolen Bases |
|---|---|
Texas | 9-for-9 |
Alabama | 7-for-8 |
Arkansas | 3-for-3 |
Tennessee | 3-for-4 |
Mississippi State | 0-for-0 |
The Pitching
Run Prevention
Team | ERA | WHIP | Runs Allowed | Earned Runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Alabama | 0.21 | 0.58 | 1 | 1 |
Texas | 1.26 | 0.90 | 8 | 7 |
Tennessee | 1.60 | 0.86 | 9 | 8 |
Arkansas | 2.50 | 0.93 | 10 | 10 |
Mississippi State | 2.77 | 1.21 | 18 | 17 |
Contact Allowed
Team | Hits Allowed | HR Allowed | 2B Allowed |
|---|---|---|---|
Alabama | 14 | 0 | 3 |
Tennessee | 19 | 3 | 2 |
Arkansas | 20 | 5 | 1 |
Texas | 26 | 1 | 7 |
Mississippi State | 28 | 6 | 3 |
Strikeouts
Team | Total K | K per Game |
|---|---|---|
Mississippi State | 48 | 8.00 |
Tennessee | 46 | 9.20 |
Texas | 44 | 7.33 |
Alabama | 38 | 7.60 |
Arkansas | 24 | 4.80 |
Control
Team | BB Issued (fewer is better) | HBP (fewer is better) | K/BB |
|---|---|---|---|
Alabama | 5 | 0 | 7.60 |
Arkansas | 6 | 0 | 4.00 |
Texas | 9 | 3 | 4.89 |
Tennessee | 11 | 6 | 4.18 |
Mississippi State | 24 | 6 | 2.00 |
Workload
Team | Innings Pitched |
|---|---|
Mississippi State | 43.0 |
Texas | 39.0 |
Tennessee | 35.0 |
Alabama | 33.0 |
Arkansas | 28.0 |
What the Numbers Are Telling Us
Arkansas is the SEC’s offensive engine, and it’s not close.
The Razorbacks lead the SEC pack in 12 different offensive categories. A 1.293 OPS over five postseason games is the kind of number that usually comes with a small-sample asterisk, except this Arkansas lineup has been doing it for months.
Arkansas has four with double-digit home runs: Tianna Bell (18), Dakota Kennedy (16), Karlie Davison (12), and Ella McDowell (11). Watch out for Reagan Johnson, who is a perfect 21-for-21 in stolen bases this season.
The most telling stat might be the strikeouts: just eight in five games. The Razorbacks are the No. 5 national seed, and the program is making its first-ever trip to the WCWS under Courtney Deifel, with a 47-11 record and a program-record 26 run-rule wins on the season. Their first-round opponent is No. 4 Nebraska in the Thursday nightcap.
Alabama’s staff has been the best in the country this postseason
A 0.21 ERA and a 0.58 WHIP through five games barely feels real. Add in zero home runs allowed, zero hit batters and just five walks issued, and you have a Crimson Tide pitching profile that ranks first or tied for first in nine of the 14 traditional pitching categories.
Patrick Murphy’s top overall seed has been driven by SEC Pitcher of the Year Jocelyn Briski, with freshman Vic Moten complementing the rotation.
The challenge in the opener is immediate and significant. UCLA hit 200 home runs as a team this season and has eight different players in double figures. Senior Megan Grant is hitting .469 with a nation-leading 40 home runs, an NCAA single-season record, while slugging 1.333 with a .650 on-base percentage.
Senior Jordan Woolery, the Softball America National Player of the Year, is slashing .500/.595/1.161 with 34 home runs, 17 doubles and 112 RBIs and is on pace to become the first player in NCAA history with a .500 average, 30 home runs and 100 RBIs in a single season.
Alabama’s zero-home-run-allowed staff against the most prolific power lineup in the country is the first big collision of the WCWS.
Tennessee is living on strong pitching and defense, while scoring enough to win
The Lady Vols have the fewest hits in the field with 33, but nine of those left the yard. That is the highest home-run-to-hit ratio of any team in OKC. On the other side of the ball, the Tennessee staff leads the conference in strikeouts per game this postseason at 9.20. Sage Mardjetko is at 10.86 K/7.
The Lady Vols got here by sweeping the Knoxville Regional and then taking out Georgia 2-0 in a Super Regional decided by a combined three runs across two games. Those are the kind of margins that suggest a team built for the survive-and-advance format awaiting them in Oklahoma City.
Mississippi State’s volume tells a story
The Bulldogs have 184 batters faced, 30 more than anyone else in the field, and pitched 43 innings, the most in the group. They lead the field in total strikeouts but they also lead in walks issued by a wide margin. The 2.00 K/BB ratio is the only one in this list under 4.00.
Samantha Ricketts’ staff is working hard for every out, and the offense’s third-place rank in hits and total bases without a corresponding ranking in slugging shows a lineup that values getting on base first and foremost. Zero stolen base attempts in six games is also a number worth flagging.
The Bulldogs got to OKC by knocking off Oklahoma in Norman, with junior Delainey Everett tossing a complete-game shutout in Game 3 in her first-ever career start. The program is making its first WCWS appearance.
Texas is one of the most balanced teams in the field
The Longhorns are one of two SEC teams in OKC that rank in the top three in OPS (second at .942) and in ERA (second at 1.26). Mike White’s team also has a perfect base-running record at 9-for-9 on stolen bases this postseason.
The offense is led by Katie Stewart, who slashes .436/.559/.988 with 27 home runs and 72 RBI on the season.
The defending national champions are riding junior Teagan Kavan, the 2025 WCWS Most Outstanding Player, who has been backed by a deep staff that includes Citlaly Gutierrez. Tennessee in Game 2 on Thursday has the feel of a pitcher’s duel, and whoever gets the big swing may take it.
The Matchups Worth Watching
With the bracket finalized, three stat-line collisions stand out before the first pitch in OKC, and two of them happen on Thursday.
Alabama’s pitching against UCLA’s power
The headline matchup of opening night. The Crimson Tide’s staff has allowed zero home runs and one earned run across 33 postseason innings. UCLA brings 200 team home runs, the Big Ten Player of the Year in Woolery, and the NCAA single-season home run record holder in Grant.
Stoppable force meeting an immovable object happens to be a cliché. This is the inverse, and one side of it is going to give first.
Tennessee’s nine postseason home runs against the Texas staff that has allowed one in six games
The matchup that defines Game 2 on Thursday. The Lady Vols have hit a home run on roughly 27 percent of their postseason hits. The Longhorns have given up exactly one in 39 innings. Something has to give.
Mississippi State’s strikeout machine against Texas Tech
The Bulldogs have totaled 48 over six games, but they have also issued 24 walks. Texas Tech’s NiJaree Canady and Kaitlyn Terry can match strikeout for strikeout, which may put the heat squarely on the Mississippi State offense to do something with the contact it does generate.
Later in the bracket, a possible Arkansas-Alabama collision
The Razorbacks and Crimson Tide are on the same side, meaning if both win or lose their openers, the SEC’s most explosive offense meets the SEC’s most dominant staff in the second round. Arkansas has hit 10 home runs in five games.
Alabama has allowed zero. Whichever side of that equation breaks first probably decides which SEC team has the fast track to a possible championship series.
Five SEC teams, with different ways of getting to OKC. Two of them have never been, and the numbers tell us why each one earned the trip. The next week will tell us which formula travels best to Devon Park.
