STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford will make its 17th NCAA regional appearance, including the first since 2013, this week at the Gainesville Regional after earning an at-large bid into the NCAA Softball Championship field on Sunday night.
The Cardinal will join host, and fifth-seed, Florida, Boise State and Boston University in the four-team regional from Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. The regional is a double-elimination tournament, and matches Stanford against Boise State at 9 a.m. PT on Friday. The game is scheduled to air live on ESPNU. BU captured the Patriot League title to reach the tournament, Florida won the SEC Tournament, and Boise State was selected as an at-large pick.
WE. ARE. IN. ??????
— Stanford Softball (@StanfordSball) May 13, 2019
Stanford has earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Softball Championship and will open the #roadtowcws at the Gainesville Regional.#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/K2U5niqmcC
The winner of the Gainesville Regional will advance to play the winner of the Knoxville Regional, featuring 12th-seed Tennessee, Ohio State, North Carolina and Longwood, in the Super Regional round.
While Stanford has missed the postseason in each of the last five years, the Cardinal made 16 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances from 1998 through 2013, including reaching the Women's College World Series in 2001 and 2004.
One of the toughest softball conferences in the nation, the Pac-12 will feature five teams in the tournament field, as UCLA earned the second seed, Washington was seeded third and Arizona nabbed the sixth seed to all host regional play. Arizona State was the final Pac-12 team selected, earning a spot in the Tuscaloosa Regional.
Stanford is 41-36 all-time in NCAA Tournament play, and has reached the Super Regional round five times – most recently in 2011.
The Card enters the postseason with a 32-18 overall record after going 8-13 in Pac-12 play to capture a fifth-place finish. In what has proven to be an impressive two-year turnaround, 2019 Pac-12 Coach of the Year Jessica Allister has guided her squad to its first winning season since 2014. Stanford also earned a national ranking (#22 according to Softball America) on March 5 for the first time since April 1, 2014. Boasting a pair of wins over top-10 opponents, the Cardinal collected eight Pac-12 wins – more than the seven compiled over the previous four years combined. More notably, Stanford's 30-7 record to start the season was the best since opening 2010 with the same record, and its 32 wins are the most in a season since 2013 (39-21).