The St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational is an early season softball tournament that is presented by ESPN Events. This year was the second year for the tournament. The Invitational featured 17 teams. The teams were (Coaches Poll ranks in parentheses): (1) UCLA, (2) Washington, (9) Florida State, (10) Alabama, (14) Oklahoma State, (17) Minnesota, (18) Missouri, (19) Georgia, (20) Texas Tech, (21) James Madison, (22) South Carolina, (24) Virginia Tech, (25) Northwestern, Kansas, Liberty, South Florida, and the US National Team. As you can see the field was very strong.
I wrote the following paragraphs about the Invitational last year and I will reproduce them here because they (mostly) remain true:
The Invitational just ended on Sunday but by all indications it was a big success.