Missouri softball is in the SEC Tournament. Here's who the Tigers will face in the Norman regional
Missouri softball didn’t have to wait long after the selection show started to find out its NCAA Tournament fate. The Tigers were the third team announced and will play California to open the double-elimination regional.
MU will travel to Norman for the regional, which includes the home Oklahoma squad that earned the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed. The Sooners will open the regional by playing Hofstra.
The Tigers’ first opponent, Cal, enters the tournament with an at-large bid out of the Pac-12. The Golden Bears finished the season 33-19-1, 9-14-1 in conference play.
They entered the Pac-12 tournament as the No. 6 seed. Cal fell in the quarterfinals against Utah, which went on to win the tournament championship.
The Bears are led by Pac-12 all-conference infielder Tatum Anzaldo, who is hitting .390 on the season with 21 RBIs. Senior 3B Makena Smith also made first-team all-conference, with 14 home runs and a .352 batting average.
A win over Cal likely means a matchup with No. 1 Oklahoma. The Sooners enter the tournament 51-1 on the season, 18-0 in Big 12 play.
Oklahoma cruised through its two Big 12 tournament games, beating a top-10 team in the finals with a 6-1 victory over Texas to earn a championship. Its lone loss this season came on Feb. 19 in the Getterman Classic against Baylor.
If head coach Larissa Anderson and company drop the game against Cal, it will set her up for a reunion with her former squad. Anderson spent 17 seasons at Hofstra, the final four as head coach, before taking the Missouri job ahead of the 2019 season.
Hofstra made the tournament by winning the Colonial Athletic Association championship. The Pride sit at 29-25 this season after walking off Towson 5-4 in the CAA tournament’s final elimination game.
Missouri enters the regional after beating Mississippi State in the first round of the SEC tournament before falling to Alabama. The Tigers, who were the No. 13 seed in the conference tournament, sit at 34-23, 7-17 in SEC play.
Game time and television details were not immediately announced.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri softball will play Cal in NCAA Tournament Norman regional
