SB Headed to NCAA Gainesville Regional

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Fourteen months after the 2020 season was cut short by COVID-19 with the Baylor softball team waiting in Gainesville, Fla., to play Florida, the Lady Bears are headed back to the Sunshine State.
            Selected as the No. 2 seed in the Gainesville Regional, Baylor (27-21) will faced third-seeded South Alabama (30-19) at 3:30 p.m. CT Friday, with national No. 4 seed Florida (42-9) playing South Florida (29-17) at 1 in the double-elimination tournament.
            "It's ironic that we left out of Gainesville, and that's where we're headed back to now," said Baylor coach Glenn Moore, whose team earned its 14^th NCAA regional bid in the last 18 years. "To get a chance to play down there is very rewarding and exciting to us as well."
            After Baylor lost its last six games, including going winless at the Big 12 Tournament, Moore said he was a "little uncomfortable" going into Sunday's selection show on ESPN.
            "I felt we had done enough, but I wasn't extremely confident in that, given the way we finished and the struggles we had toward the end," Moore said. "I did feel we had done what we needed to do from a scheduling standpoint – quality wins, we didn't have a lot of bad losses. When you put it all together, I didn't look at everybody else in the country, obviously, but I felt relatively good about it."
            One of the factors in Baylor's successful bid was the respect of the Big 12. Oklahoma (1), Oklahoma State (5) and Texas (12) were national seeds, and Iowa State was also a No. 2 regional seed at Missouri.
            "I think the conference helped us a lot this year," Moore said. "We're getting stronger than we were a few years ago. . . . I think we deserved five teams, and I said that all along."
            Baylor also has four wins over NCAA tournament teams, splitting four games with Iowa State and beating Mississippi State and Louisiana.
            Down the stretch, the Lady Bears were hurt by season-ending injuries to outfielders Nicky Dawson, Maddison Kettler and Ana Watson and freshman pitcher Maren Judisch. Dawson (.394), Watson (.353) and Kettler (.280) ranked among the Lady Bears' top hitters, while Judisch was 3-1 with a team-best 2.25 ERA.
            "I think a lot of our struggles had to do with the fact that we're a team that has given everything we have, and we're injured," Moore said. "We limped through this last part of the season. But, I think this does give us new life. Regardless of your injury situation, everyone's excited that it's championship season. We put forth everything we had to get to this point, and we were rewarded for it."
            The Gainesville Regional field includes three teams that have made it to the Women's College World Series in the past decade. Baylor has made four World Series appearances, the last coming in 2017; Florida won back-to-back national titles in 2014 and '15 and was the runner-up in 2009, 2011 and 2017; and South Florida reached the World Series in 2012.
            South Alabama has never made it past the regional round, but the Jaguars hosted the Mobile Regional in 2013 and lost to Florida State in extra innings in the championship game.
            This year's USA team has wins over Georgia and third-seeded Alabama and lost to Louisiana in the Sun Belt Tournament championship game. South Alabama coach Becky Clark started the program in 2007 and led the Jaguars to four-consecutive regional berths in 2012-15 after previous coaching stops at the University of Mobile, The Master's College in Santa Clarita, Calif., and Okaloosa-Walton Community College.
            "I know the history of South Alabama, know Becky well," Moore said. "I've coached against her since I was at William Carey (College) and she was at the University of Mobile. We go way back, we're friends and she's an outstanding coach as well and does a great job of evaluating talent."
            Florida has wins over national seeds Florida State, Kentucky, LSU, Alabama and Missouri and lost to Alabama, 4-0, in the SEC championship game. The Gators are hitting .279 as a team with 50 home runs and have a pair of 16-game winners in the circle in Elizabeth Hightower and Natalie Lugo.
            The runner-up in the American Athletic Conference, South Florida played an ambitious schedule with four losses already to Florida and two to 11^th-seeded Arizona. The Bulls lost to UCF in the AAC tournament semifinals.
            This is Baylor's first trip to the postseason since losing to Texas A&M in the final of the 2018 College Station Regional.

WACO, Texas – Baylor (27-21) secured its ninth NCAA Tournament bid in the last 10 seasons, heading to the Gainesville Regional, hosted by the No. 4 seed, Florida (42-9).

The Lady Bears open the bracket against South Alabama (30-19) on Friday, May 21, at 3:30 p.m. CT at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. The Gators and South Florida (29-17) begin the first day of play with a 1 p.m. CT start.

Baylor's all-time record in the NCAA postseason is 47-30 and all 77 games have been under head coach Glenn Moore.

This marks the 14th appearance for Baylor overall in the NCAA Tournament. The Lady Bears have advanced to at least a Super Regional round six times and are 33-13 all-time in the first round.

Florida advanced to the SEC Tournament Championship on Saturday but fell to Alabama. The Gators won their league-leading ninth overall SEC Regular Season Championship and finished with the same conference record as Arkansas.

Baylor was in Gainesville to play Florida for a three-game weekend series last March when everything shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

South Alabama is back in the NCAA tournament for the first time in six years, earning an at-large bid. The Jaguars, fresh off a championship game appearance in the Sun Belt Conference tournament, have reached the 30-win milestone this season for the ninth time in program history.

South Florida finished as the runner-up in American Athletic Conference regular season play with a 16-7 league record.

Five Big 12 teams received postseason bids. Oklahoma earned the No. 1 overall seed, while Oklahoma State garnered the fifth seed and Texas received the 12^th seed. Iowa State was also selected to the tournament field in the Columbia regional.

Baylor Softball NCAA Postseason Notes

LAST NCAA TOURNAMENT:
2018, College Station Regional

LAST NCAA SUPER-REGIONAL:
2017 - Baylor advanced from the Waco Regional to the Tucson Super Regional, coming back from a 1-0 deficit to the No. 2 seed, Arizona, to win back-to-back wins in dramatic fashion.

LAST NCAA WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES:
2017 - Baylor went 0-2 in the WCWS, falling to the eventual two-time champs, Oklahoma, and closing the season with a loss to Oregon for the second-straight season.

Baylor's all-time Postseason Record (NCAA):
47-30 (.616)

Baylor's all-time First-Round Record:
33-13

All-Time Baylor Postseason Appearances:
2004 - Waco Regional
2005 - Auburn Regional, Waco Super Regional
2006 - Corvallis Regional (Oregon St.)
2007 - Hempstead Regional (Albany), Waco Super Regional, WCWS
2009 - Waco Regional, Ann Arbor Super Regional (Michigan)
2011 - College Park Regional (Maryland), Athens Super Regional (Georgia), WCWS
2012 - Lafayette Regional (Louisiana-Lafayette)
2013 - College Station Regional (Texas A&M)
2014 - Waco Regional, Athens Super Regional (Georgia), WCWS
2015 - Lafayette Regional (ULL)
2016 - Eugene Regional (Oregon)
2017 - Waco Regional, Tucson Super Regional (Arizona), WCWS
2018 – College Station Regional

Pre-Glenn Moore Postseason Appearances:
1979 - SWAIAW Regional Tournament, 0-2 (Head Coach: Olga Fallon)
1980 - AIAW Regional Tournament, 5-1; AIAW Nationals, 0-1 (Head Coach: Bob Brock)
1981 - AIAW Regional Tournament, 4-0, AIAW Nationals, 0-2

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

SB Headed to NCAA Gainesville Regional

Players Mentioned

Nicky Dawson

Maren Judisch

Maddison Kettler

Ana Watson

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