The Gophers softball team is headed for a familiar destination to open its 10th consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament.
The Gophers are part of a four-team, double-elimination regional in Seattle with Washington as the host. They will play Southland Conference tournament champion McNeese State on Friday. Washington, the No. 7 seed for the tournament, will play Northern Colorado in the other first-round game.
The Gophers have made every NCAA tournament since 2013, not including the 2020 season that was wiped out by the pandemic. In three previous seasons, they went to Seattle — 2013, 2016 and 2018. They failed to advance to the super regionals each time, with their season ended by Washington in 2016 and ’18.
The Gophers (37-17) finished third in the Big Ten this season and had won 12 games in a row before losing 5-3 to Indiana in the Big Ten tournament semifinals on Friday in Urbana, Ill. The pitching has been led by Autumn Pease, who is 26-7 with a 1.45 ERA. Offensively, the Gophers have hit 69 home runs — Taylor Krapf leads the team with 14.
The Gophers are trying to win a regional away from home for the first time in program history and also are looking to advance out of the first weekend for the first time in three seasons under coach Piper Ritter. The winner of the Seattle Regional will play the winner of the Baton Rouge Regional, hosted by 10th-seeded Louisiana State, in the best-of-three super regionals.
Oklahoma earned the top overall seed as coach Patty Gasso’s Sooners attempt to earn their third championship in a row and sixth since 2013. UCLA is the No. 2 seed, followed by Florida State, Tennessee and Alabama, Oklahoma State and then Washington (38-12), which is making its 29th consecutive regional appearance.
The remaining seeds after the No. 7 Huskies are Duke, Stanford, LSU, Arkansas, Northwestern, Texas, Georgia, Utah and Clemson. Northwestern, the No. 12 seed, won the Big Ten tournament championship Saturday by scoring two runs in the seventh inning for a 2-1 walkoff victory over Indiana.