The 2026 college softball season is rapidly reaching its conclusion.
Jane Sage Cowles Stadium on the University of Minnesota campus hosted the 2026 Summit League Softball Championship for the first time last week, May 6-9.
Top-seeded Omaha played second-seeded St. Thomas in an elimination game Thursday after both squads dropped their opening games in the double-elimination format. The Mavericks defeated the Tommies, 12-2, in five innings in a contest that featured the only Black players in the tournament.
Omaha senior Bailey Sample was among the winners’ top three hitters, a group that went a combined 9-for-11 with six runs scored and nine RBI. The 5-foot-5 outfielder from Benicia, Calif., went 3-for-3 with one RBI and two runs scored. She is the team’s only Black player.
It was not her first perfect night at the plate. “I’ve actually had one earlier this year, and I had one that was 4-for-4,” Sample told MSR.
Sample had a double in four trips to the plate in Omaha’s 1-0 opening-game loss to South Dakota earlier that day. She said the defeat served as a wake-up call heading into the win-or-go-home matchup against St. Thomas, which faced the same fate after losing, 7-6, to South Dakota State.
“We definitely came out with a lot of energy and intensity wanting to win,” she said, “knowing that we are the best team out here, and we just got to prove it and show up, and take it one pitch at a time.”
Sample’s Mavericks nonetheless fell short of a fourth consecutive Summit League title, losing 2-1 to South Dakota in Saturday’s championship game. She stole a base and scored her team’s only run in the final. Earlier that day she went 1-for-4 in a 10-1 victory over South Dakota.
Sample led both Omaha and the league in batting average (.407) and hits (65), ranked second in on-base percentage (.522), fourth in on-base-plus-slugging percentage (1.186), and tied for second in assists (53) across 50 games. She was successful in all three stolen base attempts.
The No. 2-seeded Tommies ended their season at 34-19. St. Thomas sophomores Zoe Trotter and Miley Wichman, the team’s only two Black players, both scored in the second inning to give their team a 2-1 lead. Trotter later hit her fourth home run of the season, a solo shot, in the loss.
“If we see our pitch, we’re gonna swing hard. That’s what I did, and the love coming back into the dugout after that is just unmatched,” Trotter said afterward. “We’re all there for each other through the highs and the lows. That was just a great moment.”
The 5-foot-5 Trotter, from Saint Joseph, Mo., started 46 of 53 games this season, finishing with 30 hits, 23 runs, four home runs, 18 RBI, a .390 slugging percentage and five stolen bases in seven attempts. She was also one of eight Tommies to finish with a 1.000 fielding percentage.
The 5-foot-7 Wichman, from Norfolk, Neb., played in 47 games primarily as a pinch runner, scoring 22 runs and stealing two bases in three attempts. “The key to being successful, I found, is just to trust myself and not think about it too much,” she said of her base running. “Just trust your instincts.”
Both Trotter and Wichman earned spots on the 2024-25 Summit League Honor Roll.
Sample’s father, Victor Sample, watched his daughter play in person last week and said softball runs in the family.
“My dad played, I played, and her granddad on her mother’s side played, so she loved the game,” Victor said. “It’s natural.” He added that one of his daughter’s biggest strengths is “her energy and how she encourages her teammates to play.”
Minnesota also ended its season last week, losing 4-2 to Washington in the Big Ten Tournament opening round at Maryland. The Gophers finished 16-36.
Sophomore Jae Cosgriff of Livermore, Calif., one of two Black players on the team, wrapped up her second season as a starter in center field: .945 fielding percentage, 24 hits, 12 RBI, three home runs and a perfect 2-for-2 in stolen base attempts.
“One of my goals was just to be more confident … see the ball well and just hit better,” Cosgriff said. She said she regularly calls her father when she hits a rough patch at the plate. “He was helping me with my timing, get that front foot down early.”
Cosgriff was moved from left field to center field this season. “It was definitely different, but I played center all growing up, so it wasn’t that big of a jump,” she said. “I love it. It’s my favorite position.”
FINALLY …
MLV Minnesota, the new pro volleyball team expected to begin play in 2027, last week signed its first player: former Minnesota Gopher and East Ridge High School standout Stephanie Samedy.
The 6-foot-2 Samedy has played professionally in Japan for the past two seasons.
She starred at Minnesota from 2017-21, earning Big Ten Player of the Year honors twice and All-American recognition five times.