The Big 12 Conference batted better than .500 in the regional round of the NCAA Softball Tournament.
Seven teams went to regionals and only one — Kansas — failed to get to the regional final on Sunday. That gave the conference six chances to reach super regionals, softball’s Sweet 16. By the end of the day, four of those teams advanced.
Here is how each team did in Sunday’s final day of regional action.
NCAA Softball Tournament Regional Finals
Red Raiders Move On
After needing a historic miracle to beat Ole Miss on Saturday, the Texas Tech Red Raiders drilled the Rebels, 14-2, in a game in which they only needed five innings to win.
After having an eight-run inning in the seventh inning on Saturday to rally to a victory in extra innings, the Red Raiders had another eight-run inning on Sunday, this time in the third inning. It basically cemented the victory.
Jackie Lis drove in five runs for the game, including two runs in the third inning to make it an 8-0 game. Mihyia Davis finished 3-for-3 at the plate with two RBI and three runs scored.
Texas Tech is off to super regionals for the second straight year. The Red Raiders will play Florida in Gainesville, Fla., next weekend.
OSU Back to Supers
Oklahoma State left little room for doubt that it was going to end a one-year absence from super regionals. The Cowgirls beat Stanford, 11-5, with home runs from Amanda Hasler and Claire Timm, the latter of which was a grand slam that blew up a six-run fifth inning.
Pitcher Ruby Meylan won her 29th game of the year and the Cowgirls won their 41th game of the season. Now, it’s off to a super regional against Nebraska. For Meylan, it’s a homecoming. She’s from the Cornhusker state and has family that went for Nebraska.
Sun Devils Scorch Aggies
This is not how Texas A&M thought its home regional would go. One day after losing Arizona State to move int the loser’s bracket, the Sun Devils blew the Aggies away, 9-1, in five innings to advance to super regionals.
Brooklyn Ulrich hit a home run and drove in four runs for ASU. Samantha Swan went 2-for-3 with two RBI. ASU pitchers Meika Lauppe and Kenzie Brown worked five innings and allowed five hits and one run.
The Big 12 Tournament champions have taken that momentum and have tapped into something special going into super regionals.
Knights Get Super in Tallahassee
For just the second time in program history, the UCF Knights are heading to super regionals.
The Knights had the benefit of being able to lose a game and still advancing. Florida State responded with no room for error and won the first game on Sunday, 2-1. In the second game, the Knights broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the fourth inning and then held on to win.
Izzy Mertez drove in two runs on one hit while Beth Damon drove in two runs as well. Mertes’ home run gave the Knights the lead for good.
Wildcats Drop Two Shots at Supers
The Arizona Wildcats had everything in front of them entering Sunday’s game with Duke. The Wildcats didn’t have a loss in regionals, had a 109-14 regional record all-time and had won three straight road regionals.
Now it’s 109-16 and the Wildcats had that road regional title streak snapped against Duke.
The Blue Devils had to win both games and they did, claiming the first game, 8-6, and the second game, 9-4. Duke had a 7-2 lead after four innings and the Wildcats couldn’t find any more offense aside from a two-run fifth inning, which Dukes answered an inning later.
That ended a promising path for Arizona to the super regionals, where it would have played Arkansas.
Baylor’s Run Ends
Baylor saw its run to super regionals end on Sunday with a 7-0 loss to Texas. The Bears had already played three games on Friday and Saturday and would have needed to beat Texas twice on Sunday. Baylor managed just three hits as Texas took a 3-0 lead early in the game and never gave up ground.
