Oregon softball is hosting a Regional for the NCAA Softball Tournament in Eugene. It was selected as a No. 4 seed on Sunday, meaning that if it wins and advances, it’s not eligible to host a Super Regional.

But Version 8 will start the NCAA Tournament at Jane Sanders Stadium. Their first opponent to start the weekend will be the Idaho State University Bengals, a team who won the Big Sky conference Softball Tournament. They beat the Sacramento State University Hornets in a five inning, run-rule victory 16-8.

The other teams traveling to The Jane are the Saint Mary’s College Gaels and the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The Gaels won the West Coast Conference Softball championship over Santa Clara University, and the Bulldogs lost to the University of Arkansas in the SEC Tournament 3-0. 

Idaho State is the only team in the Eugene Regional that the Ducks have played so far this season. 

Back in February, the Ducks and Bengals went eight innings in the second game of the Oregon Classic. Oregon threw Elise Sokolsky, Maddie Milhorn and Lyndsey Grein in that game, and Sokolsky went the longest with 4.1 innings pitched. She surrendered the lead to the Bengals in the fifth, but Emma Cox tied the game up in the sixth and Elon Butler drove home Presley Lawton in the eighth for the win.  

“We’ve grown competitively as a team and offensively, and obviously defensively,” Amari Harper said. “Every game’s going to be a challenge from here on out, but using the mistakes that we had in that game and also using the positives from that game and seeing how we can grow upon that.”

But the Bengals put together a great season that culminated in that Big Sky Tournament win. They finished the season with a 37-18 record and a 10-5 conference record, they were 20-5 at home, 9-8 away and 8-5 at neutral sites.

The Gaels put together a strong season in the WCC. They finished with a great record — 40-14, and 15-3 in conference — and put up a great two-game series way back in the early stages of the season after they swept the then-No. 14 Washington Huskies in the Stanford Round Robin.

Saint Mary’s is led by Hannah Ferguson, Sam Buckley and Braxton Brown. Buckley and Brown are the power threats on the team with 11 and nine home runs, respectively. Brown leads in RBI with 54 while Buckley leads in on-base percentage (.521) and slugging (.762).

Ferguson is the best all around hitter on the Gaels with a .422 average, 111 total bases and 73 total hits. She’s also a speed threat with 10 triples and 50 runs scored. 

Finally, for the Bulldogs. Mississippi State went 38-18 on the season, but had an abysmal conference record of 9-15. While that looks terrible, the SEC was a loaded conference in 2026 and the Bulldogs were constantly up against top-25 ranked opponents. 

Mississippi State has a strong offense behind Kiarra Sells and Nadia Barbary. Both hitters are almost one in the same, with Sells narrowly beating out Barbary in average (.352 to .331), home runs (14 to 12), doubles (12 to 11) and slugging percentage (.724 to .605). Barbary excels at driving runs in, leading the team with 37 RBIs. She also leads in hits with 57. 

In the circle for the Bulldogs, their ace is undoubtedly Peja Goold. She has an incredible ERA of 2.12 and a WHIP of .96. She’s only surrendered 91 hits and has struck out 169, though the strikeout number pails in comparison to teammate Alyssa Faircloth. Faircloth has a 2.51 ERA and a WHIP of 1.00, but she’s struck out an immense 235 batters this year. 

The Bulldogs pitching staff is where Oregon is going to have to prepare the most on the weekend. Idaho State and Saint Mary’s offer up some strong competition, but the Ducks biggest challenge this coming week will be chipping through the arms of Mississippi State. 

“I think we got one more gear, and if we shift into that this weekend, we’ll be in a pretty good spot for Supers,” Stefini Ma’ake said.

The Ducks’ first game of the Regional will be Friday, May 15 at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast via KWVA (radio) and ESPN U (video).