Five things to know: NCAA regionals

NCAA REGIONALS

May 18-May 20 | Rhoads Stadium | Tuscaloosa, Ala.

MADISON, Wis. – For the second-straight season, the Wisconsin softball team has earned a spot in the NCAA Softball Tournament. The team will play in the Tuscaloosa Regional along with No. 12 Alabama, Oregon State and Middle Tennessee State. The Badgers are slated to play Oregon State on Friday at 6 p.m. (CT) with Alabama and Middle Tennessee State facing off at 8:30 p.m. Both games will air live on ESPN3.

1. WISCONSIN IN THE BIG DANCE: The Badgers earned their seventh bid in program history and the fourth under head coach Yvette Healy. UW has a 7-12 tournament record and has never made it past the regional round. Last season UW went 2-2 in the Oregon Regional, beating Missouri and Illinois-Chicago and falling twice to No. 3 Oregon.

2. CONFERENCE AWARDS: Last week six Badgers received All-Big Ten awards. Senior Kelsey Jenkins earned her third All-Big Ten first team honors while senior Brooke Wyderski and freshman Haley Hestekin both were awarded spots on the All-Big Ten second team. Hestekin and Taylor Johnson were named to the All-Freshman team and pitcher Kaitlyn Menz secured a spot on the All-Defensive team. UW's representative for the Sportsmanship Award was senior Samantha Arents.

3. HOME RUN MACHINE: Freshman Taylor Johnson has really found her place in the batter's box the second half of the season. She hit her eighth homer of the year against Purdue last weekend and got on base in all three of her plate appearances. The third baseman ranks third on the team with 34 runs, 41 hits and 72 total bases.

4. B1G TOURNAMENT RECAP: Last weekend the Badgers made it to the second round of the Big Ten Tournament after shutting out Purdue in five innings, 8-0. Freshman Laruen Foster hit two doubles while she, Brooke Wyderski and Samantha Arents knocked in two runs each to advance to the second round. UW dropped a 6-0 decision to Minnesota a day later in a game that featured nearly six hours of delays.

5. SCOUTING REPORT: No. 12 Alabama earned hosting rights after finishing the regular season with a 33-18 record and a 12-12 SEC season. The Tide tied for seventh in the SEC and made it to the second round of the 2018 SEC Softball Tournament before falling 5-2 to top-seeded Florida. Alabama notched 13 wins over top-25 teams, including a series sweep over No. 9/10 Texas A&M. Freshman Kaylee Tow has had quite the rookie season for the Tide, earning first team All-SEC honors. The outfielder has a .350 batting average with 48 hits, 34 runs, 31 RBI and 11 homers.

Oregon State is 28-26 on the season and finished sixth in the loaded Pac-12 Conference going 9-14 during conference play. They have seven ranked wins this season over Oklahoma State (twice), BYU, California (twice), Oregon and Arizona State. Senior Alysha Everett leads her team with a 3.04 average and 52 hits while starting in all 54 games this season.

Middle Tennessee State earned an at-large bid into the tournament after winning their first-ever Conference USA tournament championship last weekend. The Raiders are 39-20 overall and 11-11 in conference play. Pitcher Cori Jennings and catcher Morgan Harris were first team all-conference selections this season. Jennings has a 21-9 record with a 2.23 ERA while Harris has 61 hits, 32 runs, 39 RBI, and a .978 fielding percentage.

University of Wisconsin Athletics

Five things to know: NCAA regionals

NCAA REGIONALS

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