NORMAN — Oklahoma freshmen Kendall Wells and Kai Minor have been among the best players in college softball this season.

So it’s no surprise that the pair are both included on the NFCA Freshman of the Year top 10 list.

Wells is one home run away from tying the NCAA single-season home run record. She sits at 36 home runs entering the SEC Tournament.

Top-ranked Oklahoma (48-7) opens the tournament against Georgia at approximately 7 p.m. Thursday. The game will be braodcast on the SEC Network.

Wells is hitting .367 with 79 RBIs and 64 runs scored.

She broke the NCAA record for home runs by a freshman with her 31st home run April 11 at Texas, then broke Jocelyn Alo‘s program record with her 35th home run April 24 vs. Georgia.

Sooners coach Patty Gasso has also praised Wells’ defense at catcher.

“Her hustle is at another level,” Gasso said. “… If you watch the quickness that she picks up bunts, I mean, she is jumping out. She is making some phenomenal defensive plays, and I care as much about that as I do about the way she’s hitting the ball.”

Minor is hitting .438, best among OU’s regulars. She leads the team with 71 hits, and has 13 doubles, six triples and eight home runs. She’s also stolen 17 bases.

She’s also been a plus defender, with no errors and an assist in 56 chances in centerfield.

In last weekend’s series win at Texas A&M, Minor had an RBI triple to break a late tie in the Sooners’ 4-3 win to clinch a share of the SEC regular-season title and then hit a leadoff home run in the series finale to help them win the title outright.

Gasso has called her the team’s tone setter at the top of the order.

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Three finalists will be announced May 20, with the winner named May 26 ahead of the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.

Four Sooners have won NFCA Freshman of the Year honors since the award was introduced in 2014.

Paige Parker was the first OU winner in 2015, followed by Jocelyn Alo in 2018, Tiare Jennings in 2021 and Jordy Bahl in 2022.

Florida’s Taylor Shumaker won the award last year.

Minor and Wells are the ninth and 10th Sooners to be on the top 10 list with the most recent being Ella Parker in 2024.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (FOX Carolina) – A new poll from The Trafalgar Group offers an early snapshot of the Republican primary field in South Carolina’s race for governor.

The survey of 1,089 likely Republican primary voters was conducted May 2 to May 5 and lists a 2.9 percentage-point margin of error.

Who leads

In the poll’s test ballot, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette drew 25.2 percent support, followed by Attorney General Alan Wilson 23.1% percent.

The next tier included U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman 19.6 percent and U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace 15.2 percent.

The remaining candidates were Rom Reddy 10.1 percent, state Sen. Josh Kimbrell 4.2 percent and Jacqueline Dubose 2.7 percent.

What to know

Poll results can change quickly as campaigns ramp up, endorsements are made and more voters tune in.

The Trafalgar Group said the poll was conducted among likely GOP primary voters with a 95 percent confidence level.

What’s next

FOX Carolina will continue tracking new polling, endorsements and candidate announcements as the 2026 election cycle unfolds.

Feel more informed, prepared, and connected with FOX Carolina. For more free content like this, download our apps.

Tennessee Republicans have passed a new congressional map that would crack Memphis’ Shelby County into three different districts, in an effort to eliminate the state’s lone remaining Democratic-held seat.

Currently, Tennessee is represented by eight Republicans and one Democrat.

The district that includes Memphis is majority Black, and Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee called a special legislative session to consider a new congressional map after the U.S. Supreme Court last week weakened the Voting Rights Act’s protections against racial discrimination in redistricting.

Thursday’s legislative votes came amid protests at the state capitol, and after a walkout by Democrats.

State Rep. Justin Pearson, a Memphis Democrat, called the new district maps “racist tools of white supremacy” in House testimony.

Tennessee GOP lawmakers defended the new map, saying their goal is partisan, to send an all-Republican delegation to Washington, D.C.

President Trump has urged Tennessee and other GOP-led states to redraw their maps before this fall’s midterm elections, as part of his mid-decade redistricting push. Earlier Thursday, Tennessee Gov. Lee signed a bill that repealed a state law prohibiting mid-decade redistricting.

Republican lawmakers in other southern states, including Louisiana and Alabama, are moving to eliminate other majority-Black, Democratic-held districts in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision.

Before last week’s ruling, Republicans likely held a narrow lead in mid-decade redistricting — creating districts they can more easily flip to their side — by a few seats over Democratic counter-efforts. Now that lead could double, to perhaps six or seven seats. And that’s if a pro-Democratic redistricting measure approved by voters in Virginia holds up in state court.

With reporting by WPLN’s Marianna Bacallao