NCAA Tournament Bracket

WACO, Texas - The Baylor softball team (43-12) secured its sixth-straight NCAA Tournament bid, paired in the Eugene, Ore. Regional hosted by the No. 5 Oregon Ducks. The Lady Bears will face Long Beach State (32-20) on Friday, May 15 at 8:00 p.m. CT/6:00 p.m. PT.

The Ducks (44-8) will follow with an 10:30 p.m. CT/8:30 p.m. PT matchup with Fordham (39-19), with both games airing on ESPNU and the WatchESPN app.

Baylor, ranked No. 16 by USA Softball and No. 21 by the NFCA, finished the season at 43-12 and second place in the Big 12 with a 13-4 record. With a No. 13 ranking in the most recent NCAA RPI record, the Lady Bears ended up left out of the top-16 teams to earn a hosting opportunity for the first round.

"First of all I'm very disappointed we didn't get to host," said Baylor head coach Glenn Moore. "I thought we had solidified that or had a really good chance at it. We have a pretty good resume. The girls had really played well down the stretch."

Baylor has faced Long Beach State just once before, a 7-1 neutral site loss in 2011. The Lady Bears have never faced Fordham, but hold a 6-2 all-time series advantage over Oregon. Most recently, the two squads split a two-game set in Waco in 2015, including a walk-off victory over the then-No. 2 Ducks.

"I know Oregon is good, we had them here last year," said Moore. "We saw their ace here last year. She's considered by many to be the top pitcher in the country, but we've got one to match up with her."

The first round begins Friday and will carry through Sunday until a team emerges to be sent to the next round at the NCAA Super Regional Tournament.

"We'll get our team prepared and go out there and try to win a regional," said Moore. "We're playing the best ball we've played all year, and that's what you want as a coach. We finished the season playing really well. We just need to take that into postseason."

Baylor's all-time postseason record is 38-23, and the Lady Bears are coming off a 2015 NCAA appearance in the Lafayette Regional, falling to the Ragin' Cajuns in the region's final.

In its 11 postseason appearances Baylor will be traveling for the eighth time to begin the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Bears are 27-17 all-time in postseason games away from Waco and Getterman Stadium.

Keep up with the team all season long by following Baylor Softball on the team's official Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram pages, @BaylorSoftball.

#SicEm

Calling it a "bitter pill to swallow," Baylor softball coach Glenn Moore was in shock Sunday night when his 20th-ranked softball team was sent packing to Eugene, Ore., for the NCAA Tournament.

The Lady Bears (43-12), who have won 10 in a row and were 13th in the latest RPI rankings, will face Long Beach State (32-20) at 8 p.m. CDT Friday in a four-team regional headed by No. 5 national seed Oregon (44-8).

"First of all, I'm very disappointed that we didn't get to host," said Moore, whose team earned its sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament bid and 11th in the last 13 years. "I've never been more off in my predictions than this year. I thought we had solidified that, or had a really good chance at it. . . We had taken care of business, but obviously there are things the committee knows that we don't."

While the NCAA selection committee didn't go strictly by the RPI rankings, Baylor is the only top-16 team that is not hosting. Georgia, with a No. 19 RPI ranking, is seeded 16th and one of eight SEC teams hosting regionals.

"(I'm) disappointed, to say the least," senior outfielder Linsey Hays said. "But we're in the tournament and we're going to a very good place. . . . We're playing our best ball right now, which is great. We've had a really good season and beat some really good teams."

Oregon, one of three Pac-12 teams hosting and eight in the 64-team field, won its fourth consecutive conference title and is hosting for the fifth straight year. The Ducks will face A-10 champion Fordham (39-19) in Friday's other first-round game at 10:30 p.m. CDT.

Baylor is 6-2 all-time against Oregon and split a pair of games at last year's Baylor Invitational, losing 4-1 and then bouncing back to upset the second-ranked Ducks, 2-1, on a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh.

"We played Oregon last year, so we have some history against them," Hays said.

The Ducks are hitting .354 as a team with 92 home runs and are led in the circle by senior left-hander Cheridan Hawkins (21-3, 2.02 ERA). That could create an interesting second-round matchup between Hawkins and Baylor senior righty Heather Stearns (19-6, 1.91).

"I know Oregon is good, we had them here last year," Moore said. "We saw their ace (Hawkins) last year. She's considered by many to be the top pitcher in the country, but we've got one to match up with her."

With a No. 37 RPI ranking, Long Beach State is making its 23rd NCAA Tournament appearance and has been to the World Series five times. Senior third baseman Darian Tautalafua is hitting .347 with school single-season records for home runs (15) and RBI (54), while junior Christina Clermont is 22-10 with a 2.11 ERA and 195 strikeouts.

"I know very little about Long Beach. We'll go to work and find out what we need to find out," Moore said. "We'll get our team prepared and go out there and try to win a regional."

The remainder of the regional schedule has the first-round winners squaring off at 4 p.m. CDT Saturday, followed by elimination games at 6:30 and 9. Sunday's championship games are 6 p.m. CDT and 8:30 (if necessary), with the region champion advancing to face the winner out of the regional hosted by 12th-seeded UCLA.

"Frankly, we're a little upset right now," Stearns said, "and I think that will help us playing Long Beach State and maybe Fordham and Oregon."