Commentary Both the sport of softball and the devastation of wildfires were prominent in the news last week. The University of Oklahoma Sooners won their third consecutive national title, finishing the season on an astonishing 53-game win streak and with a final record of 61–1. Meanwhile, farther north, air quality was so bad as a…

DOVER, Del.—A Delaware woman is facing decades in prison after pleading guilty to killing her 3-year-old daughter and dumping her burned remains on a softball field. Kristie Haas, 31, pleaded guilty Thursday to murder by abuse or neglect, abuse of a corpse, and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Prosecutors are recommending…

YOKOHAMA,—Japan won its second straight Olympic softball gold medal, beating the United States 2–0 Tuesday in an emotional repeat of its 2008 victory in Beijing that again left the Americans in tears. Yukiko Ueno took a one-hitter into the sixth inning, five days after her 39th birthday, and Japan snuffed out an American rally attempt…

YOKOHAMA, Japan—Getting ready to reach softball’s peak and make her Olympic debut, Janie Reed was on a training field at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in western Japan. Across the Pacific Ocean, 7,452 miles away, another important family first was unfolding in Miami: Husband Jake Reed was about to walk onto a major league mound…