Tonight at 6 pm PT, the UCLA softball team will find out their seeding for this year’s NCAA Softball Tournament and the Women’s College World Series. 2019 NCAA Softball Selection Show Time: 6:00 pm PT, Sunday, May 12, 2019 TV: ESPN2 Live Stream: WatchESPN Interactive Bracket While UCLA finished the regular season tied with Washington for first place in the Pac-12 standings, the Bruins earned the conference’s automatic bid by virtue of their head-to-head record against the Huskies. As in years past, the tournament field will consist of 64 teams with 32 conference champions receiving an automatic bid and 32 earning at-large bids. Sixteen teams will be seeded and, typically, the seeded teams host the Regional competitions the first weekend of the tournament. This year, the Regionals will take place from May 17 to May 19 while the Super Regionals will take place from May 23 to May 26 at eight campus sites Even if the Bruins slip in the seedings due to this weekend’s two losses to Arizona, it would be a surprise if UCLA is not seeded in the top 5 or if UCLA is not in line to host both a Regional and Super Regional, assuming the team gets that far. This year’s selection show will air at 6 pm PT on ESPN2 and WatchESPN.com. Go Bruins! Bring home 118!! !<doc-sep>This will get you excited for this year's WCWS This will get you excited for this year's WCWS INDIANAPOLIS—The University of Oklahoma earned the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Division I Softball Championship as the 64-team field was announced today by the NCAA Division I Softball Committee. The Sooners will host the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, an automatic qualifier from the America East. FULL BRACKET: View the 2019 interactive bracket | Schedule and teams Thirty-two conferences were awarded an automatic qualification, while the remaining 32 slots were filled with at-large selections to complete the bracket. The top 16 teams were seeded nationally and will play at campus sites beginning this Thursday. Team pairings were determined by geographic proximity, with the exception that teams from the same conference were not paired during regional competition. The Southeastern Conference led all leagues with 13 teams selected to the championship tournament. The Big Ten Conference placed six teams in the championship tournament. Two teams are making their first appearance in the tournament: Detroit Mercy University and Seattle University. Since the tournament began in 1982, only 13 schools have been crowned the NCAA Division I softball champion. 11 of the 13 teams will compete in this year’s bracket. CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON: Buy tickets and schedule your trip to the 2019 Women's College World Series DATES/SITES/PAIRINGS: *Indicates Host Institution Norman Regional – May 17-19 at Norman, Oklahoma No. 1 seed Oklahoma* (49-2) vs. UMBC (30-22) Notre Dame (36-16) vs. Wisconsin (40-12) Evanston Regional – May 17-19 at Evanston, Illinois Southern Ill. (33-13) vs. Louisville (33-21) Detroit Mercy (31-26) vs. No. 16 seed Northwestern* (43-10) Austin Regional – May 17-19 at Austin, Texas No. 9 seed Texas* (41-14) vs. Sam Houston St. (34-21 ) Texas A&M (28-25) vs. Houston (37-17) Tuscaloosa Regional – May 17-19 at Tuscaloosa, Alabama Arizona St. (33-18) vs. Lipscomb (41-13-1) Alabama St. (24-23) vs. No. 8 seed Alabama* (52-7) Gainesville Regional – May 17-19 at Gainesville, Florida No. 5 seed Florida* (44-15) vs. Boston U. (37-18) Stanford (32-18) vs. Boise St. (34-14) What better way to get career win 💯 than with a strikeout in the @SECSBTourney championship game? #NCAASoftball (via @GatorsSB) pic.twitter.com/mzf0qMGF5J — NCAA Softball (@NCAAsoftball) May 12, 2019 Knoxville Regional – May 17-19 at Knoxville, Tennessee North Carolina (35-18) vs. Ohio St. (34-16) Longwood (37-20) vs. No. 12 seed Tennessee* (39-14) Stillwater Regional – May 16-18 at Stillwater, Oklahoma No. 13 seed Oklahoma St.* (39-14) vs. BYU (29-24) Arkansas (38-18) vs. Tulsa (35-18) Tallahassee Regional – May 17-19 at Tallahassee, Florida South Carolina (36-17) vs. South Fla. (40-17) Bethune-Cookman (26-29) vs. No. 4 seed Florida St.* (51-8) Seattle Regional – May 17-19 at Seattle, Washington No. 3 seed Washington* (45-7) vs. Fordham (29-24) Mississippi State (33-21) vs. Seattle U. (39-15) Lexington Regional – May 17-19 at Lexington, Kentucky Virginia Tech (45-9) vs. Illinois (32-23) Toledo (29-26) vs. No. 14 seed Kentucky* (33-22) Oxford Regional – May 17-19 at Oxford, Mississippi No. 11 seed Ole Miss* (37-17) vs. Chattanooga (37-15) Louisiana (50-4) vs. Southeast Mo. St. (45-16) Tucson Regional – May 17-19 at Tucson, Arizona Auburn (37-19) vs. Colorado St. (38-10) Harvard (25-17) vs. No. 6 seed Arizona* (42-12) Minneapolis Regional – May 17-19 at Minneapolis, Minnesota No. 7 seed Minnesota* (41-12) vs. North Dakota St. (42-14) Georgia (40-17) vs. Drake (42-14) This Selection Show Sunday wait has us feeling all sorts of ways... pic.twitter.com/D47Pid5ZkW — Minnesota Softball (@GopherSoftball) May 12, 2019 Baton Rouge Regional – May 17-19 at Baton Rouge, Louisiana Texas Tech (39-14) vs. Louisiana Tech (44-14) Monmouth (36-16) vs. No. 10 seed LSU* (40-16) Ann Arbor Regional – May 17-19 at Ann Arbor, Michigan No. 15 seed Michigan* (43-11) vs. Saint Francis (PA) (29-29) James Madison (47-7) vs. DePaul (34-14) Los Angeles Regional – May 17-19 at Los Angeles, California Missouri (32-23) vs. Cal St. Fullerton (38-16) Weber St. (26-19) vs. No. 2 seed UCLA* (46-5) CHAMPIONSHIP STRUCTURE: The committee held selections on May 10-12. The 64-team field was selected from 296 NCAA Division I institutions sponsoring softball. Of the 64 teams, 32 teams received an automatic qualification with the remaining best 32 teams selected on an at-large basis. Full list of automatic qualifiers: *The Big 12, A-10 and AAC softball tournaments were canceled due to inclement weather and field conditions. The Big 12's auto-bid to the NCAA tournament was awarded to Oklahoma, the regular season champs. The AAC auto-bid goes to USF, the highest remaining seed in the conference tournament. Fordham gets the A-10's auto-bid after winning the regular season championship. Regionals will be held May 16-19 on 16 campus sites. At each campus site, a four-team, double-elimination tournament will be conducted, and the 16 winning teams advance to the Super Regionals. Due to rain in Amherst, the final game of the #A10SB Championship has been canceled. No. 1 @FordhamSoftball and No. 3 @GW_Softball are named Co-Champions and Regular season champion Fordham receives the A-10 automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Story: https://t.co/UfzWqBQxxO pic.twitter.com/36srPglSWC — Atlantic10Conference (@atlantic10) May 12, 2019 Super Regionals for the championship will be held May 23-26 on eight campus sites. At each site, two teams play in a best-of- three tournament format. The winners from each site advance to the NCAA® Women’s College World Series (WCWS). SEEDING/SITES: Teams were selected to the field of 64 teams. The top 16 teams were seeded in order, and the remaining teams are paired by geographic proximity, with the exception that teams within the same conference were not paired during regional competition. CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES: 2018 highlights: Florida State defeated Washington, 8-3, to win its first-ever WCWS title. For complete championship details log on to www.ncaa.com. SHOP SOFTBALL CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GEAR FROM FANATICS<doc-sep>Selection Sunday is here! The 64-team NCAA Softball Tournament bracket will be revealed at 6 p.m. PT on ESPN2. Sixteen teams will be seeded as the top team in the field and will be placed at the 16 regional sites. You can also stream the selection show on NCAA.com and WatchESPN. The Arizona Wildcats are expected to receive a top-8 seed and host Regionals and Super Regionals should they advance that far. Arizona finished the regular season at 42-12 overall and 19-5 in the Pac-12, good for third place in the conference. UA’s 19 conference wins were its most since 2003. Arizona, which entered the week No. 4 in RPI, won two of three against No. 3 UCLA in Westwood to wrap up the regular season on Saturday. Click HERE for more Arizona softball coverage.<doc-sep>The 2019 NCAA DII softball tournament bracket is set. Sixty-four teams look to make their way to Denver, Colorado for the DII softball championship. Let's take a look at the top seed and one sleeper from each region. BRACKETS: Print your regional brackets Atlantic Region No. 1 seed: West Liberty | Sleeper: West Chester The Hilltoppers are MEC champions for the first time ever and are rolling into the NCAA DII tournament on a six-game win streak, including four impressive wins in a row in the MEC tournament. They defeated West Virginia State, who seemed to have a stranglehold on the No. 1 seed in the region, in the semifinals. Katie Beeman slugged a two-run home run in the top of the seventh — her second on the day — to give West Liberty the thrilling victory. She and Kat Donzella (16 home runs) pack a potent punch in this lineup. Representing the Atlantic Region as the No. 1 seed in the #D2SB Championship, West Liberty!#MakeItYours pic.twitter.com/8eg21zoAuL — NCAA Division II (@NCAADII) May 6, 2019 We really like PSAC champion Lock Haven as a sleeper here, but the first-round draw of No. 1 West Liberty hurts a little. Still, the Bald Eagles lost just once in their last 11 games. But we’re going with a West Chester team that made it to Salem last year with some of its best hitters — like Emily Maseth, Bri Garber, and Heidi McCollester — all back for more. Central Region No. 1 seed: Central Oklahoma | Sleeper: Southern Arkansas The Bronchos have done it all year long and really showed they are postseason-ready in the MIAA tournament, defeating their four opponents by a combined score of 37-8. While JoBi Heath (.412, 14 home runs, 71 RBI), Bailey Thompson (.410), Hazel Puempel (.407), and Lexy Dobson (.404) give Central Oklahoma a quartet of .400 hitters, freshman Bailey McKittrick is the breakout star. She’s 24-2 with a 1.81 ERA in the circle. Representing the Central Region as the No. 1 seed in the #D2SB Championship, Central Oklahoma!#MakeItYours pic.twitter.com/A17IKu0GKt — NCAA Division II (@NCAADII) May 6, 2019 The Central Region is the only part of the bracket with a 50-game winner, and it has two of them in No. 3 Augustana (SD) and No. 2 Winona State. Obviously both are a threat, but we like Southern Arkansas. Head coach Jason Anderson always has a crop of sluggers, and this year is no different with five hitters blasting double-digit home runs. East Region No. 1 seed: St. Anselm | Sleeper: Wilmington (DE) Guess who’s back? The Hawks have had an up and down season, reaching the No. 1 seed in the NFCA polls for the first time in program history before falling out of the top 25 altogether. But St. Anselm — the reigning national runners-up — are rolling now, winners of 12 in a row, including a tenth-inning, walk-off win against Adelphi to close the season. Pitcher Morgan Perry is rolling, winner of her last 15 starts while not allowing two runs or less in 14 of them. Representing the East Region as the No. 1 seed in the #D2SB Championship, Saint Anselm! #MakeItYours pic.twitter.com/OeYuWjj6X0 — NCAA Division II (@NCAADII) May 6, 2019 The Wildcats had to win three straight games on May 4 to stave off elimination and advance to the NCAA tournament. They did just that, including two in a row against top-seeded Georgian Court to capture the CACC title. Rosa'Lynn Burton has been one of DII softball's more exciting hitters, and this year is no different, as she's fourth in DII with a .526 batting average. This could be her chance to shine on the big stage. Midwest Region No. 1 seed: Grand Valley State| Sleeper: Southern Indiana What can you say about the Lakers? They have been dominant all year, winners of 44 games and now 10 in a row. They have offense with Nikoma Holmen, Lydia Goble, and Taylor Rieger bringing serious pop to the lineup, and they have pitching, winning 26 of Allison Lipovsky’s appearances in the circle. She’s posted a 0.81 ERA and struck out 271 in just 189 innings, making the Lakers a tough out in the postseason. Representing the Midwest Region as the No. 1 seed in the #D2SB Championship, Grand Valley State!#MakeItYours pic.twitter.com/l2nseRwRsx — NCAA Division II (@NCAADII) May 6, 2019 Can the reigning national champions really be a sleeper? Well, Southern Indiana certainly was last year, reaching Salem as the bottom seed and going on an undefeated run to the title. Unlike last year, however, when the Screaming Eagles had momentum heading into the NCAA tournament, they dropped their last two of the season, but Jennifer Leonhardt showed there are very few pitchers who can step up as she does in the postseason. Watch out for both UMSL and Indianapolis, but you just have to keep Southern Indiana on the radar. PLAYERS TO WATCH: 7 DII freshman hitters ready for the postseason South Central Region No. 1 seed: Texas A&M-Kingsville| Sleeper: Oklahoma Christian Angelo State did not make the NCAA DII tournament, so the South Central will be the only region guaranteed of a new representative in the final eight. The Javelinas took down their first Lone Star Conference title since 2002, and did it in impressive fashion, beating two nationally-ranked teams in No. 19 Tarleton State and then No. 7 Texas A&M-Commerce. Anastasia Leibas (.403, 11 home runs, 52 RBI) leads the offense, but Breanna Smith and Saidi Castillo give the Javelinas a legitimate two-headed monster in the circle, making it really tough for opposing lineups. Representing the South Central Region as the No. 1 seed in the #D2SB Championship, Texas A&M-Kingsville!#MakeItYours pic.twitter.com/IUbQpqJAIP — NCAA Division II (@NCAADII) May 6, 2019 Why not go true sleeper here and take a look at the Oklahoma Christian Eagles? Winners of their first Heartland conference title in program history, the Eagles lost quite a bit in April before righting the ship at the perfect time.<doc-sep>
With conference tournaments starting this week and the Division I softball selection show set for Sunday, it's almost NCAA tournament time. These are the three biggest questions we have ahead of the 2019 bracket reveal. How many SEC teams will make the tournament? It's tourney time in College Station! Who will take home the 🏆?#SECSB pic.twitter.com/oRL8uQWPel — Southeastern Conference (@SEC) May 8, 2019 Sixty-four softball teams will qualify for this year's NCAA tournament. But of those teams, how many will come from the sport's most dominant conference? Last year, all 13 SEC teams qualified for the national tournament. But this year, three of those 13 sit outside the top 25, with one of them, Texas A&M, not receiving any votes. The Aggies have struggled as of late, and Wednesday's SEC tournament first round loss to Mississippi State does not help their chances of earning a tournament bid on Sunday. GAME TIME: These NCAA softball teams are looking to prove themselves in conference tournaments On the other end of the SEC spectrum is No. 4 Alabama, a team that has already built an impressive 2019 resume that the team capped off with an SEC title over the weekend. Alabama holds the highest national ranking of any SEC team, and starts the tournament as the No. 1 seed. However, No. 9 Florida, No. 10 LSU, No. 11 Tennessee and No. 13 Georgia could also be in the hunt for a conference title. This conference is deep, and the quantity of teams in the top 15 is just one indication of this strength. SEC players lead the nation in home runs, home runs per game and on-base percentage, setting the stage for an exciting conference battle. The SEC champion earns an automatic bid, but that will leave the rest of those top-15 teams looking for an at-large bid. Last year, nine of the 13 qualifying SEC teams earned a seed in the national tournament. The question this year is not just how many will be seeded, but how many will qualify? No. 17 Ole Miss, No. 19 Arkansas, No. 20 South Carolina, No. 23 Kentucky and No. 24 Auburn are all squeezed into the national standings and will hope to hear their names called on Sunday. What seed will UCLA earn? This fab frosh has racked up 15 wins for the @UCLASoftball Bruins with a 1.31 ERA. 🔥 Congrats to @MeganFaraimo for being named the #Pac12SB Freshman of the Year! pic.twitter.com/5fgZljDReP — Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) May 8, 2019 At one point this season, the Bruins were a national championship favorite. UCLA went undefeated through its first sixteen games — picking up victories against ranked teams Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Florida — before suffering its first loss of the season to Michigan on March 1. This year seemed to be UCLA's for the taking. But all of that was before the team lost to Oregon in April, after which UCLA ceded the top spot to Oklahoma. The Bruins went on to pick up their third loss of the season — and second to an unranked opponent — and the hands of Stanford in early May. Now the Bruins sit at third in the NFCA poll behind Oklahoma and fellow Pac-12 competitor Washington. 2019 NCAA SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT: Bracket, schedule, teams Without a conference tournament on the schedule, UCLA will look to wrap up its regular season with a series sweep of Arizona as it awaits the committee's decision. Three wins against the Wildcats will help UCLA, but the big question is whether or not that will be enough to push UCLA to the No. 2 overall seed. Washington will play Stanford this weekend. A loss could move the Huskies to third and elevate UCLA, but a win might be enough to keep them ahead of the Bruins. The only thing UCLA can do is look for an Arizona sweep and hope for that No. 2 overall seed. Which Cinderella team will have the best chance of winning a regional? It's tough balancing school and athletics but @LamarSoftball senior Maddy Myers had an interesting ride.#NCAASoftball pic.twitter.com/6gxMVJVNir — NCAA Softball (@NCAAsoftball) May 8, 2019 With 32 automatic qualifiers in the bracket, lesser-known programs have the chance to make their marks on the national tournament. Last year, the only teams to advance to the super regional level came from the Pac-12, SEC, Big 12 and ACC.