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The sixteen broadcast crews who will step into the booth for Regionals week have been set.
On Wednesday, ESPN officially announced the play-by-play and analyst pairings who will call the action during the first week of postseason play. The opening round television schedule was also released.
Most notably among the broadcaster announcements:
- Two new analysts join ESPN’s rosters for the 2022 postseason. Former Michigan star Sierra Romero and Oklahoma national champion Nicole Mendes will step into the booth for the first time; Romero will call the Gainesville Regional while Mendes will call the Orlando Regional. Mendes has called some games for Oklahoma team radio this season alongside veteran play-by-play man Chris Plank.
- Beth Mowins is not on ESPN’s roster of talent for the Regional round. Initially scheduled to call the SEC tournament, Mowins missed the tournament due to illness. Eric Collins will fill in at play-by-play alongside analyst Michele Smith for the Tempe Regional.
- Softball legend Cat Osterman will call her first career Regional. Osterman has called games for Texas State and on the Longhorn Network for Texas during the regular season.
- After spending the regular season as the ACC’s top studio analyst, former North Carolina catcher Brittany McKinney returns to the booth to call a Regional for the second consecutive years. She’ll be behind the mic in Durham.
- Working in the studio will be Jessica Mendoza and Jen Schroeder.
In full, the Regional broadcast pairings:
- Norman Regional: Tiffany Greene/Erin Miller
- Tallahassee Regional: Mike Couzens/Kayla Braud
- Blacksburg Regional: Pam Ward/Jenny Dalton-Hill
- Fayetteville Regional: Eric Frede/Madison Shipman
- Los Angeles Regional: Trey Bender/Kenzie Fowler
- Tuscaloosa Regional: Alex Perlman/Francesca Enea
- Stillwater Regional: Alex Loeb/Cat Osterman
- Tempe Regional: Eric Collins/Michele Smith
- Evanston Regional: Matt Schumacker/Jennie Ritter
- Clemson Regional: Jenn Hildreth/Carol Bruggeman
- Knoxville Regional: Courtney Lyle/Danielle Lawrie
- Durham Regional: Clay Matvick/Brittany McKinney
- Seattle Regional: Mark Neely/Amanda Scarborough
- Gainesville Regional: Sam Gore/Sierra Romero
- Columbia Regional: Angel Gray/Tori Vidales
- Orlando Regional: Tyler Denning/Nicole Mendes
*****
Thanks to an overload of sports on the ESPN family of networks this weekend, only a handful of opening-round Regional games will air on linear TV. The majority of Friday’s opening games will be shown on ESPN+, the Worldwide Leader’s subscription-based live-streaming service. Worthy of note, ESPN+ is not included with any cable or satellite service and must be purchased separately.
Of the games on TV, ESPNU will air a quadruple-header – four games back-to-back that will begin at noon Eastern time. Both the SEC Network and ESPN2 will air triple-headers on Friday, while the ACC Network and the Longhorn Network will also pick up games in the opening round. The below schedule includes only games airing on Friday (televised games on Saturday/Sunday are TBD) and is sorted by channel.
All listed times are Eastern.
ESPN2
- 5 pm – Minnesota/Texas A&M
- 8 pm – San Diego State/LSU
- 10 pm – UCLA/Grand Canyon
ESPNU
- 12 pm – Liberty/Georgia
- 2 pm – Wisconsin/Georgia Tech
- 4 pm – Oregon State/Ohio State
- 6 pm – South Florida/Mississippi State
SEC Network
- 2 pm – Missouri State/Missouri
- 4 pm – Chattanooga/Alabama
- 6 pm – Princeton/Arkansas
ACC Network
- 12 pm – UNCW/Clemson
- 2 pm – Saint Francis/Virginia Tech
Longhorn Network
- 5:30 pm – Weber State/Texas
*****
Every pitch of last week’s 28 conference tournaments was available to be seen on some live-streaming or television medium, including a host of events that were streamed via ESPN+. Some takeaways and some of the week’s biggest standouts…
Firstly, ESPN has hit a home run with some of their analyst choices in recent years, but their assignments for studio work might be the best work of all. Madison Shipman is one of the network’s best game callers and her work in a studio format is equally as impressive. Shipman is the softball expert on the SEC Network’s Rally Cap show and was one of the studio analysts for the SEC tournament in Gainesville. Shipman’s ability to break down swings, players, and the game as a whole is top-notch.
Alongside Shipman on that SEC tournament studio show was Kayla Braud, who did some of her best work of the year while down in Gainesville. Braud has taken a step back over the last couple of years, but she shines her brightest as a studio analyst. It’s a good role for the former Crimson Tide star.
Play-by-play veteran Eric Frede gets the Hustle Award for tournament week; originally scheduled to call a single-game American conference championship in Greenville, NC on Saturday, Frede instead jumped into action to head to Gainesville on the spur of the moment to replace Beth Mowins, who was COVID-ed out of the week’s slate. Frede went straight from off-duty to en route to calling the evening finale on Wednesday – no easy task. He called the game well and took the reins for the rest of the week. An impressive effort and ability to adjust on the fly for all involved.
Amanda Scarborough remains ESPN’s best talent in the booth; she showed her skills on multiple occasions while down in Gainesville. She works well as both a solo analyst and as part of a 3-man booth with Michele Smith.
Speaking of Smith, she deserves props for her work. There is a decided improvement in Smith’s presence and analysis in the booth over the last several years; she has the ability to call a quality game and her insights and knowledge have really come through on multiple occasions in the last couple of years especially. No one is perfect, Smith included, but her recent work in the booth deserves praise. She was also almost hoarse during her first games of the SEC tournament, but muscled through and never missed a beat.
One more national note… Brittany McKinney has done a sensational job as the ACC Network’s go-to softball analyst. McKinney hasn’t seen the inside of a broadcast booth all season, but has done studio work and is a regular on programs like All ACC and Packer and Durham, providing analysis about specific teams and the league as a whole. McKinney’s TV debut didn’t come until 2021 and she has added to her workload steadily in 2022. She has really begun to come into her own as an analyst and does quite well in the studio setting. (As proven in Pittsburgh last week, “umbrella holding” is also within her skill set).
Some final thoughts… Former Kennesaw State coach and administrator Scott Whitlock is an absolute treasure in the broadcast booth. Whitlock adds a lot of personality to the broadcast and his softball knowledge is deep and well-rounded. He’ll occasionally miss a play in live action, but his situational awareness and ability to predict plays is as sharp now as it was when he coached. Come for the softball smarts, stay for the stories… former Albany player Donna Conrad was in the booth as the analyst for the OVC championship. Having never heard Conrad’s work, I was impressed with her efforts as she did a quality job. She didn’t step in over her head, played to her strengths, and inserted her knowledge in the right places… the winners for best mid-major tournament crew, to my eye, were Chris Mycoskie and Jill Jelnick, who called all of the preliminary rounds of the AAC tournament. Jelnick’s analysis and presence within the broadcast were top-notch and she spoke like the seasoned television pro that she is; Mycoskie has a tremendous play-by-play voice and is a quality game-caller. The duo also outlasted multiple rain delays and rolled with the punches that ultimately included multiple 9 am first pitches. That alone should get them their own trophy – or at least some Chik-fil-A breakfast coupons.