Oregon softball makes the NCAA Tournament field and will open play Friday in Oklahoma
Oregon softball coach Melyssa Lombardi is heading back to Love’s Field in Norman, Oklahoma, for the start of the postseason.
The Ducks will most likely have to take down the three-time defending national champions if they want to play anywhere else this season.
Oregon (28-19) will open NCAA Tournament play at 2:30 p.m. Friday against Boston University (52-4-1) in the first game of the Norman Regional.
The other teams in the regional are host and No. 2 overall seed Oklahoma (49-6) and Cleveland State (22-24).
Lombardi was on the Sooners’ staff under coach Patty Gasso for 21 years — the last 11 as associate head coach — before taking the Oregon job in 2018.
“I think for us, postseason is postseason,” Lombardi said. “Anywhere we go, whether it’s to Norman or it’s to any other regional, it’s postseason and it’s going to be tough. For us, we’re caught up in ourselves, we’re caught up in getting ready to go play, and we’re caught up in our first opponent, which is Boston University.”
The Ducks last played on Thursday when they opened the Pac-12 Tournament with a 7-4 loss to Utah in a quarterfinal game. Oregon led 4-3 with two outs in the seventh inning but the Utes rallied for four runs to get the win.
The Ducks are in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight season. Last May they upset host No. 13 Arkansas to win the Fayetteville Regional and advance to the Super Regionals for the first time since 2018.
They’ll have to pull off an even more surprising upset this weekend to advance to the Super Regionals as the Sooners are among the favorites to win the national title again this season.
But up first in the double-elimination Norman Regionals are the Terriers, who have won 11 games in a row — including three straight last week to take the Patriot League tournament title — and haven’t lost in 26 games. Their last loss came on April 2 against Dartmouth.
Boston’s only other losses this season were against Northwestern (2-0), South Carolina (3-0) and Duke (4-2).
“We’re excited to get into the tournament,” Lombardi said. “It never gets old to hear our name, like, that’s the best feeling in the world. I think about our journey and how hard this team has worked this year. Everything we’ve done has been earned.”
Follow Chris Hansen on X @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: See who Oregon softball will play in the NCAA Tournament
