2 weeks ago
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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — After beating Arizona twice in the Tucson regional and Arkansas twice in the Fayetteville super regional, Ole Miss softball begins its national title hunt Thursday at its first-ever appearance in the Women’s College World Series.
Ole Miss, unseeded going into postseason play, faces the No. 12 seed Texas Tech Thursday at 6 p.m.
Action across the eight-team double-elimination bracket begins Thursday at Devon Park. The final two teams will play for the title in a best-of-three series starting June 4.
In other opening-day matchups, second-seeded Oklahoma plays No. 7 seed Tennessee, third-seeded Florida will play No. 6 seed Texas and No. 9 seed UCLA meets No. 16 seed Oregon.
Although No. 1 overall seed Texas A&M was knocked out in regional play, the SEC has five teams in the field — Oklahoma, Tennessee, Florida, Texas and Ole Miss.
Florida beat Georgia in three games to advance. The Gators won national titles in 2014 and 2015 and lost to Oklahoma in the semifinals last year.
Texas has reached the best-of-three championship series in two of the past three seasons, with both losses coming to Oklahoma. The Longhorns are also in their first season in the SEC.
Texas Tech and Ole Miss are first-time qualifiers.
Texas Tech beat host Florida State in a super regional. Pitcher NiJaree Canady, last year’s USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, led Stanford to the national semifinals two straight years before transferring to Tech. She led the Red Raiders to their first Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles.
UCLA and Oregon will meet in a matchup of former Pac-12 teams that moved to the Big Ten this year.
Oregon, the Big Ten regular-season champion, defeated upstart Liberty to advance. Liberty stunned Texas A&M in regional play, but couldn’t get past the Ducks.
UCLA was down to its last out against South Carolina in Game 2 before winning, then took Game 3. The Bruins could add to their record 12 World Series titles.
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