Oregon St. Softball Earns NCAA Berth

After completing a 33-22 season, Oregon St. is headed to the Columbia, MO, regional for the NCAA Softball playoffs.

An 8-16 conference record was [only] good enough for 8th place in the 9 team Pac-"12", but this is the toughest and deepest conference in softball, and 8 teams were selected to the field of 64.

Oregon St. will open against Hofstra (43-11) Friday. The other teams in the Missouri regional are Missouri (35-11), the 6th seed overall, and Stony Brook (35-23).

Other Pac-12 teams that are hosting in the post-season include conference champion Oregon (46-9), the #3 overall seed, who will be hosting a super-regional if they prevail in their regional next weekend, Arizona St. (45-10), the #5 overall seed, and Washington (38-15), the #11 overall seed.

Pac-12 teams traveling for the regionals include Arizona (32-24), headed to the College Station regional, California (36-17), headed to the Ann Arbor regional, Stanford (37-19), headed to the Lincoln, NE, regional, and UCLA (37-18), headed to the Louisville regional.

Dates and matchups were announced this evening.

UPDATE: Start time for Friday's game has been moved up to 1 PM PDT (3 PM CDT) to avoid conflicts for graduating seniors at the University of Missouri.

If Oregon St. advances to the super-regionals, the Beavers will meet the winner of the Seattle regional, which besides Washington, includes Portland St., Hawaii, and Minnesota.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com