The Baylor softball team (36-16) secured its eighth-straight NCAA Tournament bid, heading to the College Station Regional, hosted by the No. 15 seed, Texas A&M (40-16).
The Lady Bears open the bracket playing a familiar foe, paired with McNeese (40-19) in the opening game of the weekend on Friday, May 18, at 3:30 p.m. CT at Davis Diamond. The Lady Bears have won two of three games over the Cowgirls in the 2018 season.
The Aggies and Prairie View A&M (20-21) close out the first day of play, set for a 6 p.m. CT start.
ESPN 3 and the Watch ESPN app will carry every game throughout the tournament, with select games to be aired on ESPN, ESPN 2, and ESPN U.
Baylor's all-time record in the NCAA postseason is 45-28 and all 73 games have been under head coach Glenn Moore.
This marks the 13th appearance for Baylor overall in the NCAA Tournament and eighth-consecutive selection. The Lady Bears have advanced to at least a Super Regional round six times and are 31-11 all-time in the first round.
Texas A&M is one of nine SEC teams to secure a hosting bid, with four of those in Baylor’s quarter of the bracket (No. 2 Florida, No. 7 Georgia, No. 10 Tennessee). The Aggies have lost their four games in a row after sweeping Auburn, closing the regular season being swept by Alabama and losing in the first round of the SEC Tournament to Mississippi State.
Baylor has faced Texas A&M in postseason play in College Station once before, failing to advance out of the Aggies’ regional in 2013.
McNeese earned the Southland's automatic bid with a 4-2 win over Nicholls on Friday to win its third-straight Southland Conference Tournament title and third-straight NCAA Regional Appearance. BU beat the Cowgirls, 7-1, in Hattiesburg, Miss., on Feb. 16 earlier this season, going on to split a midweek two-game set in Waco on April 10-11.
Prairie View A&M won six-straight elimination games in the SWAC Softball Championship, including three on Saturday, to win the program’s first championship since 1998.
Oklahoma claimed the No. 3 overall bid, with Oklahoma State heading to the Fayetteville Regional paired with No. 13 Arkansas, and Texas landing a spot in the Seattle Regional, taking on No. 5 Washington.
