After a long fall and winter, college softball kicks off the 2017 season in a big way with a rematch of last year's Women's College World Series combatants Oklahoma and Auburn.

This isn't your ordinary rematch.

The Sooners, the 2016 NCAA Div. I National Champions, and runner-up Auburn will launch their seasons Thursday as part of a five-tournament tournament held in Mexico called the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge.



The two national title finalists will take the field at 2 pm ET in a game that will be broadcast on ESPNU. Preceding that game will be Nebraska vs. BYU at 11 AM EST (ESPN3) with BYU vs. Oklahoma at 5 pm (no TV/live streaming) and Washington vs Auburn at 8 pm EST (ESPN3).



All the games will be held at the newly remodeled Nancy Almaraz Stadium located just a quarter mile from the beaches lining the Pacific Ocean.



The Puerto Vallarta College Challenge is the only DI fastpitch event currently held outside the United States and was accomplished through a partnership with the city of Puerto Vallarta and Triple Crown Sports.

The Auburn vs. Oklahoma game marks what may be an unprecedented moment in NCAA softball, where the two teams that met for the Women's College World Series title play each other to start the following season.

As softball fans remember, the Sooners topped the Tigers in the nail-biting three-game series, 2-1, scoring two runs in the first inning of Game 3 and holding on for a 2-1 victory.



The seeds for this week's historical series was planted nearly 27 years ago when David King, CEO of Triple Crown Sports, was introduced to the Mayor of Puerto Vallarta, located in Jalisco, Mexico.

"We started going to Cabo in 1990 and played slowpitch there," King explains. "I was soon connected to the mayor of Puerto Vallarta and he was a baseball guy. That year we came and visited and the mayor said yes to us doing baseball and slow pitch in 1991 and those experiences were some of the greatest I've ever had."

Throughout the '90s, King and Triple Crown made renovations to the softball field in Puerto Vallara including adding lights and upgraded fences. Eventually, coaching luminaries such as Sue Enquist (UCLA) and Carol Bruggeman (Purdue) visited the site to provide input regarding the viability of a college tournament in the Mexican resort city.

"The community got excited about softball, slowpitch and fastpitch, but the coaches and I realized that the location wasn't ready at the time," King continues.

"Around the early 2000s it seemed to be moving in the right direction and we revisited the college concept about seven years ago, but the economy was rough. Finally, three years ago we got it started and off the ground."

The inaugural Puerto Vallarta College Challenge was held in 2015 and, featuring teams from BYU, Nevada, Northern Colorado and Southern Illinois, became a historical event as the first ever tournament to feature NCAA fastpitch games played outside the United States.

"The teams loved the experience," King recalls, "and that started the momentum going but there was still a lot to do. We had to redo the lights, there were no batting cages, we redesigned the semi-permanent fences and bleacher spaces."

"And then the next thing we knew, we got some really strong teams and got lucky locking in Oklahoma and Auburn two years ago and now both teams face each other again on Day 1. Who would have imagined that would happen?"

There was no event in 2016 as Triple Crown put a lot of time and effort to build a top-level event this year. Good word of mouth locked in not just the World Series finalists but other good teams across the nation including Washington, Nebraska and BYU this week and Mississippi State, Texas Tech, Cal State Fullerton, Florida Gulf Coast and Fresno State who will play in Session 2 of the Challenge next week (Feb. 16-19).

Along with facing quality competition, the teams will get to do local clinics for up-and-coming softball players in and around the area who will not only benefit from meeting some of the top collegiate players in the nation, but will also receive equipment left behind, t-shirts and tickets to the games.

King feels what really makes the Challenge special is the atmosphere surrounding the games themselves.

"It's dialed back to another time here," he told FloSoftball this week from Mexico as he and his staff finalized preparations. "It's like America 30 years ago and the players and coaches feel it. You have the fans coming out and following them, there are the kids and dogs running around eating tacos and carne asada."

"I fell in love with this place, there's no place like it. It's like a Fenway Park in Boston, but here you have three to four story Mexican homes around the site with jungle and mountains behind home plate. The players can look up and see where they shot (the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie) Predator!"

King says he's renovating a home in Puerto Vallarta as he loves the area so much.

"There are just really good people here and since we're here for two weeks a year at least, it makes sense to have a place to stay and visit," he concludes.

"And the event is unique and allows people to experience the great softball, the sun and beach... the players and coaches just smile. They compete hard, sure, but they realize that the competition on the field and the support off it takes them back to a different time."

"They just say, 'Wow, this is why I got into softball in the first place!'"

Get More From FloSoftball!

Sign up for the FloSoftball newsletter for instant access to: Breaking News, Live Streams, Original Documentaries, Rankings, Technique Videos and more!