Super regionals in the 2018 NCAA Softball Tournament get underway this weekend to settle the eight Women’s College World Series berths. The action starts Thursday night with a trio of games featuring the tournament’s top three seeds.
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Heading into Selection Sunday, the top four seeds were virtually locked up:
- No. 1 Oregon — the top team in RPI and winners of 24 of its last 25 games
- No. 2 Florida — runaway SEC regular season champs for the fourth consecutive year and the SEC tournament winners.
- No. 3 UCLA — the nation’s No. 1 ranked team at the end of the regular season
- No. 4 Oklahoma — two-time defending national champions and owners of the nation’s best record at 53-3
Three of those four seeds escaped regionals without a loss, and aside from the Gators’ trailing Ohio State in the fifth inning of their second game prior to cruising to a run-rule victory, those three teams weren’t tested.
UCLA, on the other hand, needed to rattle off three straight elimination game wins after an extra innings loss to Cal State Fullerton. The Bruins survived on clutch hitting and solid performances from USA Collegiate National Player of the Year finalist Rachel Garcia.
The amount of action Garcia received in regionals might be concerning — throwing more than 500 pitches in those five games across three days — but she will have this season’s history on her side. UCLA swept its super regional opponent, No. 14 Arizona, in April with Garcia registering a pair of wins. It’s will certainly be a tough ask for the Wildcats to win two in Easton Stadium to earn their first College World Series appearance since 2010.
Top-ranked Oregon has been the most dominant team in the nation since conference play started. Its two primary starting pitchers, Megan Kleist and Miranda Elish, both have top-five ERAs nationally at .92 and the team clocks in with the NCAA’s seventh-best team batting average at .322.
It’s going to be enough to keep up with No. 16 Kentucky, which averaged more than nine runs a game in its three regional contests. The Wildcats have also been through the grind of SEC play, a stretch that was enough to ware down the Ducks during the non-conference stretch. Compared to its gaudy 21-3 PAC-12 record and 26-1 record against teams from other conferences, Oregon went just 3-3 against SEC opponents in 2018.
Florida have been the beasts of the SEC — owning the league’s best record by four games and sweeping through the conference tournament. The Gators will face a familiar foe — No. 15 Texas A&M. They run-ruled the Aggies in the opening game of the College World Series last season and dominated them during the 2018 regular season with a decisive sweep.
Oklahoma also faces a team it has a dominant history against — winning nine straight against No. 13 Arkansas dating back to 2009, its latest win eliminating the Razorbacks from the 2017 NCAA Tournament. The Sooners are flying high with only one loss since February, coming against top-seeded Oregon.
Still, it’s the postseason and Arkansas is in the midst of its best year in program history, which was capped off by a sweep through regionals.
SEC vs. PAC-12
The west coast was originally the home of college softball’s best teams, but the SEC has taken the claim of the top conference in recent years. In the midst of the PAC-12’s six-year drought without a national champion (or national finalist, for that matter), the SEC has sent a team to the College World Series championship series every year since 2011.
With 14 of the 16 super regional teams coming from these two conferences, the battle for superiority will be on once again. At least two of the nine SEC schools still alive will reach the World Series as there are a pair of in-conference clashes. The UCLA-Arizona matchup means that at least one PAC-12 school will be represented. Outside of these games and super regionals featuring a pair of SEC schools that will travel in hopes of upsets against the Sooners and No. 6 Florida State, there will be three SEC-PAC-12 clashes.
Along with the aforementioned Oregon-Kentucky super regional, the clashes between the nation’s best two conferences may provide the most intrigue.
No. 9 South Carolina was down to its final out against Hofstra in an elimination game during last weekend’s regionals, but a Krystan White walk-off home run saved the day and set the scene for the Gamecocks’ doubleheader takedown of Liberty, which put them in the loser’s bracket just 24 hours prior.
Now the Gamecocks are faced with a road trip to No. 8 Arizona State to face its ace in the circle, Giselle Juarez. For the whopping 207.1 innings the sophomore has pitched this season — 14 more innings than any other pitcher in the top 10 nationally in ERA — she’s giving up .88 earned runs per seven innings pitched, good for the second-best ERA in the country.
Both teams have become accustomed to playing spoiler this season — the traditional sub-.500 SEC program earned a spot in the conference title game and the Sun Devils earned wins against Oregon, UCLA, and Washington, all of which were ranked No. 1 at some point this season. Now the two schools on the cusp of the sport’s biggest stage will battle to rise above its role of spoiler and into the elite.
It’s been less than a decade since these two programs were crowned national champions, but No. 5 Washington and No. 12 Alabama are battling to reclaim a seat in the title conversation.
The Crimson Tide travel to Seattle hoping to avoid its first two-year World Series drought since becoming NCAA Champions in 2012, while the Huskies have a shot to better its top-four finish from a season ago, but potentially with a different star in the pitching circle.
Taran Alvelo, who was the ace on Washington’s road to the World Series, hasn’t registered a result since three straight losses to Oregon and UCLA at the end of April. Australian freshman Gabbie Plain, who boasts a team-leading 1.03 ERA, has received most of the action — earning wins in all three Husky regional games.
Alabama will be riding senior Alexis Osorio back to Oklahoma City. She helped the Crimson Tide to the World Series during her freshman and sophomore seasons, but hasn’t had the same success since — earning seeds good enough just to host regionals, but not super regionals the past two years.
She doesn’t have a top ERA, giving up more than two earned runs per seven innings pitched on average, but she does have the experience, including throwing every pitch en route to a memorable super regional victory against the loaded Oklahoma offense back in 2015. Osorio is the last pitcher to hand two-time national champion Paige Parker a postseason loss.
Super Regional Schedule
Thursday
- 7 p.m. — No. 2 Florida vs. No. 15 Texas A&M [Game One] (ESPN)
- 9 p.m. — No. 3 UCLA vs. No. 14 Arizona [Game One] (ESPN)
- 9 p.m. — No. 1 Oregon vs. No. 16 Kentucky [Game One] (ESPN2)
Friday
- 5 p.m. — No. 4 Oklahoma vs. No. 13 Arkansas [Game One] (ESPN2)
- 5 p.m. — No. 7 Georgia vs. No. 10 Tennessee [Game One] (ESPNU)
- 7 p.m. — No. 2 Florida vs. No. 15 Texas A&M [Game Two] (ESPN2)
- 7 p.m. — No. 6 Florida State vs. No. 11 LSU [Game One] (ESPNU)
- 9 p.m. — No. 3 UCLA vs. No. 14 Arizona [Game Two] (ESPN2)
- 9 p.m. — No. 5 Washington vs. No. 12 Alabama [Game One] (ESPNU)
- 11 p.m. — No. 1 Oregon vs. No. 16 Kentucky [Game Two] (ESPN2)
- 11 p.m. — No. 8 Arizona State vs. No. 9 South Carolina [Game One] (ESPNU)
Saturday
- 1 p.m. — No. 4 Oklahoma vs. No. 13 Arkansas [Game Two] (ESPN)
- 3 p.m. — No. 7 Georgia vs. No. 10 Tennessee [Game Two] (ESPN)
- 5 p.m. — No. 2 Florida vs. No. 15 Texas A&M [Game Three*] (ESPN)
- 5 p.m. — No. 6 Florida State vs. No. 11 LSU [Game Two] (ESPN2)
- 7 p.m. — No. 3 UCLA vs. No. 14 Arizona [Game Three*] (ESPN)
- 7 p.m. — No. 5 Washington vs. No. 12 Alabama [Game Two] (ESPN2)
- 9 p.m. — No. 1 Oregon vs. No. 16 Kentucky [Game Three*] (ESPN)
- 9 p.m. — No. 8 Arizona State vs. No. 9 South Carolina [Game Two] (ESPN2)
Sunday
- 1 p.m. — No. 4 Oklahoma vs. No. 13 Arkansas [Game Three*] (ESPN)
- 3 p.m. — No. 7 Georgia vs. No. 10 Tennessee [Game Three*] (ESPN)
- 3 p.m. — No. 6 Florida State vs. No. 11 LSU [Game Three*] (ESPNU)
- 7 p.m. — No. 5 Washington vs. No. 12 Alabama [Game Three*] (ESPNU)
- 9 p.m. — No. 8 Arizona State vs. No. 9 South Carolina [Game Three*] (ESPNU)
* If necessary
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