Division I softball tourney has three Louisiana teams

The NCAA has announced their bracket for the Division I softball championships and three Louisiana teams, LSU, UL-L and McNeese, will get the chance to vie for the title at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.
LSU was selected as the No. 11 overall seed for the 2018 NCAA Softball Championships and will host the Baton Rouge Regional this weekend with UL-L, Houston and Fordham May 18-20 at Tiger Park.
LSU will take on Fordham at 5:30 p.m. CT Friday evening, with Houston and UL-L playing in the first game of the regional at 3 p.m.
A nationally-seeded team for the fourth consecutive season, the Tigers come into the postseason with a 41-14 overall record. LSU finished the regular season with a sweep of Arkansas for fifth place in the SEC.
The Tigers defeated Ole Miss in the first round of the SEC Tournament and then fell to Tennessee in the quarterfinals. LSU is one of nine Southeastern Conference teams to earn a national seed as all 13 teams from the SEC made the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight year.
“This team did a good job,” said head coach Beth Torina. “They won a lot of games that they were supposed to win. They won some big games. We have a great opportunity in front of us. I don’t think there is any easy road. I think every team deserves to be here, but I think our team has a great opportunity in front of us just being included in the field.”
The Ragin’ Cajuns, ranked No. 21 in both national polls and 21st in the most recent NCAA RPI rankings, were awarded an at-large berth into the postseason event.
It’s the 28th appearance overall, all coming in the past 29 years, for the nationally recognized program. Since 1990, the Ragin’ Cajuns have missed the NCAA’s postseason event only once (1998).
UL-L will be the second seed of the regional. The Ragin Cajuns finished the 2018 regular season with a 38-14 overall and were 21-6 in the Sun Belt, finishing second behind Texas State.
The Tigers and the Ragin’ Cajuns met in last year’s regional in Baton Rouge. LSU owns a 14-9 record against ULL.
UL-L coach Gerry Glasco agreed that playing close to home is a positive.
“It’s huge,” he said. “It allows you to keep your schedule as close to routine as you can in an NCAA Regional. So I think it’s going to be a big advantage to only be an hour down the road.”
“Houston has a very good ball club,” Glasco said. “They’ve got a very good pitcher. She’s capable of keeping the score low. I would have expected a very similar type game that we played with Texas State.”
McNeese softball will open play at the NCAA Softball Regional Tournament in College Station, Texas on the campus of Texas A&M at 3:30 p.m. Friday, May 18 at Davis Diamond, the new $28.6 million home of Texas A&M Softball.
That game will be followed by a match-up between No. 15 Texas A&M and Prairie View.
The Cowgirls have two Mamou natives on staff, as head coach James Landreneau and assistant coach Dale Jack both hail from Evangeline Parish.
McNeese’s first game comes against a familiar foe in Baylor, a team the Cowgirls have played a lot in recent history, including three games this season. The Cowgirls lost their first two games against the Bears before taking a 7-3 victory in the last meeting between the two teams.
“We’re just excited to finally find out our destination right now,” said Landreneau. “You know no matter what when you go into the postseason it’s going to be a tough place to play. We’re going to College Station to take on some quality opponents, and we got matched up with Baylor, a familiar foe.”
The Cowgirls earned one of 32 automatic bids with after sweeping its way through the Southland Conference Tournament for its third consecutive league title.
McNeese, 40-19, won the tournament despite an up-and-down regular season that included wins against such teams as Florida State and Baylor as well as a losing series sweep suffered at the hands of its first conference opponent of the season in Central Arkansas.
The University of Oregon earned the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Division I Softball Championship today when the NCAA Division I Softball Committee announced the 64-team field.
The Southeastern Conference led all leagues with 13 teams selected to the championship tournament. The Pac-12 Conference placed seven teams in the championship tournament. Four teams are making their first appearance in the tournament: Boise State University, Kennesaw State University, Monmouth University, and Prairie View A&M University.
Only 12 schools have been crowned the NCAA Division I softball champion since the tournament started in 1982, 11 of the 12 will compete in this year’s bracket.