Texas Softball Heads to Lafayette for NCAA Regional
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The University of Texas softball team has earned the two seed in the 2014 NCAA Regional in Lafayette, La. The Longhorns will be making their 10th straight and 15th overall NCAA appearance when they travel to the University of Louisiana-Lafayette for the three-day event.
(Also Read: Texas Softball – Senior Presence Felt in Softball’s 3-2 Walk-Off win Over No. 17 Baylor)
Texas (33-21) received an at-large berth to the 64-team 2014 NCAA tourney and will compete in a four-team, double elimination NCAA Regional from Friday-Sunday, May 16-18. Head coach Connie Clark's squad will open regional action on Friday at 3:00 p.m. CT against Mississippi State (38-19).
The other two teams at the Lafayette Regional are host, No. 6 Louisiana Lafayette (44-8-1), who is the Sun Belt Conference Champion. ULL will take on Texas Southern (31-18), the South Western Athletic Conference Champions at 6 p.m. Central on Friday in first-round action.
The game times for Saturday and Sunday in Lafayette will be announced by the NCAA at a later time.
Oregon (49-7-1) was named the No. 1 seed in the 64-team field, while Alabama (45-11) earned the No. 2 seed, followed by third-seeded UCLA (48-6) and fourth-seeded Georgia (45-12).
Thirty-two conferences were awarded automatic qualification, and 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 this weekend.
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 11 teams selected to the championship tournament. The Big Ten and Pacific-12 Conferences each placed five teams in the championship tournament, respectively. Six teams are making their first appearance in the tournament: Bryant University, Charleston Southern University, Dartmouth University, Utah Valley University, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Texas Southern University.
Only 11 schools have been crowned the NCAA Division I softball champion since the tournament started in 1982, and eight are in this year's bracket.
