Kentucky softball learns its NCAA Tournament path won’t start in Lexington
The path has been set for the Kentucky softball team in the NCAA Tournament.
During Sunday night’s NCAA Tournament Selection Show — which was broadcast on ESPN2 — the Wildcats were placed in the Blacksburg regional along with host school Virginia Tech, St. Francis (Pa.) and Miami (Ohio).
This marked the 13th-straight time that UK was selected for the NCAA Tournament.
For the first time since 2015, UK was not selected as a seeded team for the 64-team tournament by the NCAA Division I Softball Committee. The 16 seeded teams host NCAA Tournament regionals at campus sites.
Each regional site will feature a four-team, double-elimination tournament, with the 16 winning teams advancing to the super regionals, which will be held at eight campus sites.
At each super-regional site, two teams will play a best-of-three series, with the winners advancing to the NCAA Women’s College World Series.
Kentucky owns a 35-17 overall record this season, with a 13-12 mark in games against Southeastern Conference schools.
It marked the sixth straight season (not including the 2020 season that was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic) that Kentucky softball has recorded at least 35 wins.
UK played just one game last week in the SEC Tournament, losing in the quarterfinals to host Florida 9-3 on Thursday night. Kentucky was the No. 4 seed for the conference tournament.
In five of the last six seasons and in the last four NCAA tournaments, Kentucky has been eliminated in a super regional.
The Wildcats have been to the Women’s College World Series once in program history (2014).
UK was given a top-16 seed and hosted a regional in the five previous NCAA tournaments (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021).
Kentucky’s team leaders in key statistical categories for the 2022 season so far are as follows.
Hits: Senior catcher Kayla Kowalik (69).
Home runs: Sophomore infielder Erin Coffel (17).
Batting average: Kowalik (.413).
Earned run average: Senior pitcher Tatum Spangler (1.77).
Wins: Spangler (9-2 record).
Innings pitched: Junior pitcher Miranda Stoddard (70).
Strikeouts: Sophomore pitcher Stephanie Schoonover (60).
Scouting the Blacksburg regional
Host Virginia Tech is the No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Virginia Tech was 41-7 overall this season and 21-2 in Atlantic Coast Conference play.
Virginia Tech lost in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament last weekend.
This will be the first time in school history that Virginia Tech hosts an NCAA softball regional.
St. Francis (Pa.) finished the regular season with a 37-16 overall record and a 20-4 record in Northeast Conference play. St. Francis won the Northeast Conference Tournament for the fifth straight time, the longest championship winning streak in NEC history.
Miami (Ohio) finished with a 39-15-1 overall record and a 24-5 record in Mid-American Conference play. The RedHawks won the MAC Softball Tournament last weekend.
Regional play will take place Friday though Sunday.
UK will open against Miami (Ohio) at 4:30 p.m. Friday.
The game will be shown on ESPN+.
Virginia Tech will play St. Francis (Pa.) at 2 p.m. Friday on the ACC Network.
Kentucky lost to Virginia Tech, 6-1, during the opening weekend of the season in Florida, and Uk also lost at Miami (Ohio) in March.
UK hasn’t played St. Francis (Pa.) this season.
“I’m kind of excited (that) we played Miami and Virginia Tech this year. Definitely excited to get some payback and see them again,” Kowalik told reporters Sunday night. “Upsets are the softball world’s favorite thing to see, so now Kentucky just gets to be a part of that.”
This story was originally published May 15, 2022 at 9:36 PM.
