Following its regular-season-ending series win over UCLA on Saturday afternoon to finish third in the Pac-12, the Oregon softball team received some even better news Sunday evening. The Ducks (39-15, 13-9 Pac-12) were selected as the No. 11 overall seed in the 64-team NCAA softball tournament, and will host their first-ever regional later this week at Howe Field.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205427264@@
Oregon is the top seed in the four-team regional, with BYU (43-13), Mississippi State (33-22) and Portland State (27-23) rounding out the Eugene Regional. BYU and Mississippi State open the double-elimination round on Thursday at 3 p.m., followed by Oregon and Portland State at 6 p.m.@@checked@@
The Ducks hosted Portland State in a nonconference doubleheader last month, with Oregon taking both games, 10-4 and 1-0.@@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=245&SPSID=4374@@ The Vikings won the Pacific Coast Softball Conference tournament@@http://www.pacificcoastsoftball.com/news/2012/4/28/SB_0428124512.aspx@@ last weekend. Oregon also matched up with BYU earlier this year, a 2-1 loss back on Feb. 11 at the season-opening Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz.@@checked@@
Taking a look at the entire tournament field, only the Southeastern Conference (nine) sent more teams into the postseason than the Pac-12 (eight). The Big 12 (six), ACC (five), Big East (five) and Conference USA (four) were the only other conferences to sent more than two teams.@@checked in press release, first link@@
Top-ranked California, No. 3 Arizona State, No. 12 UCLA, No. 13 Arizona and No. 16 Washington will each host regionals out of the Pac-12, while Stanford will travel to Lafayette, La., and Oregon State will go to Norman, Okla., for their respective regionals.
Of the eight teams that reached last year’s Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City — Arizona State, Oklahoma, Missouri, Florida, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Cal and Alabama — only Oklahoma State did not return to the field of 64 this season. Defending national champion Arizona State will host Syracuse, LIU Brooklyn and Long Beach State in the Tempe Regional, and the 2011 runner-up, Florida, welcomes South Florida, Florida Gulf Coast and University of Central Florida in an all-Florida Gainesville Regional.@@checked@@
Oregon has reached the Super Regionals in each of the last two seasons — falling to Missouri in Columbus in 2010 and to Florida in Gainesville last spring@@in press release@@ — and figures to have a good opportunity at claiming a third-straight Super Regional berth this year. Looming in the second round for the Ducks would be the winner of the Austin Regional, hosted by No. 6 Texas, where Northwestern, Houston and Auburn will each compete this weekend.@@also in press release@@
The Pac-12 has dominated the postseason historically, having won 10 of the last 11 national titles, including the past six in a row. UCLA (2003, 2004, 2010), Arizona (2001, 2006, 2007) and Arizona State (2008, 2011) have each won the national championship multiple times during that stretch. Washington (2009) and Cal (2002) claimed the other two titles.@@checked@@
Few teams have a better two-year record than the defending national champion Sun Devils, who have posted a 106-13 clip during that time.@@checked in Arizona St.’s schedule@@ However, No. 1 overall seed Cal took two of three from Arizona State in the regular season finale this past weekend.@@http://www.thesundevils.com/sports/w-softbl/sched/asu-w-softbl-sched.html@@
The Golden Bears (50-4) won their first outright conference title since 1987 this spring,@@http://www.calbears.com/sports/w-softbl/spec-rel/051312aaa.html@@ and are led by three of the nation’s best players in seniors Valerie Arioto and Jamia Reid and junior pitcher Jolene Henderson.@@http://www.calbears.com/sports/w-softbl/mtt/cal-w-softbl-mtt.html@@ Arioto (20-2) and Henderson (30-2) faced little opposition in their 61 combined appearances, which helped Cal hold a 1.27 earned run average as a team — the third-best mark in the country.@@http://www.calbears.com/sports/w-softbl/stats/2011-2012/teamcume.html@@ @@http://www.ncaa.com/stats/softball/d1/current/team/282/p1@@

Arioto’s 22 home runs offensively led the Pac-12 and were tied for the fourth-best individual total in the NCAA this season, while her .626 on-base percentage was the second-best tally in the nation.@@http://www.calbears.com/sports/w-softbl/stats/2011-2012/teamcume.html@@ @@checked tallies on NCAA’s website@@
If Cal wins its first-round games, the Bears would face the winner of the Seattle Regional in the second round. Washington, Harvard, Maryland and Texas Tech will compete for that opportunity this weekend.@@http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/cal/sports/w-softbl/auto_pdf/2011-12/misc_non_event/2012SoftballNCAABracket.pdf (PDF)@@