NCAA Softball Tournament: Oregon will play in Fayetteville Regional, open against Wichita State

After finishing fifth in the Pac-12 during the regular season, the Oregon Ducks finally found out where they would be playing to begin the 2022 NCAA Softball Tournament.

The Ducks' first regional will be in SEC country against the best team in that conference.

Oregon (31-17, 10-14 Pac-12) will be in the Fayetteville Regional as the No. 2 seed. The Ducks will play No. 3 Wichita State at 5:30 p.m. Friday in a double-elimination game on ESPN+. This will be Oregon's 22nd NCAA Tournament appearance all time.

Arkansas (44-9, 19-5 SEC), the host seed, will play Princeton, the fourth seed, at 3 p.m. Friday on SEC Network. The Razorbacks won both the SEC regular-season and postseason titles after defeating Missouri 4-0 in the conference title game on Saturday.

"We're excited," Oregon softball coach Melyssa Lombardi said. "We are excited to go to the postseason, we are excited to go to the state of Arkansas. Now the biggest thing is getting ready for Wichita State."

Oregon's opponent Wichita State earned an at-large bid because of a No. 36 RPI, according to D1Softball.com, and a 10-8 record against teams ranked No. 26-100 in the RPI. It is the sixth NCAA regional bid Wichita State has earned in program history.

The Shockers rank second only to Oklahoma in home runs (118 total) and runs per game (8.4). They also have a batting average of .353, which is third in the nation.

Wichita State brings two potential All-American players in shortstop Sydney McKinney, who leads the country in batting average (.511). Outfielder Addison Barnard leads the nation in home runs (32), RBIs (82) and total bases (168) as she was named AAC Player of the Year. Barnard also has a batting average of .409.

Senior infielder Allee Bunker believes going through the grind of the Pac-12 schedule will be beneficial for Oregon in a double-elimination regional like this.

"We have faced every single type of pitcher there is," Bunker said. "Pitching, defense is the hardest thing to adjust to going to play great teams.

"We faced great pitching and defense all year. I'm really excited to see us because there isn't nothing we haven't seen."

Oregon will enter the tournament as winners of five of its last six games to end the season.

Read more:Oregon Ducks softball sweeps Oregon State, climbs out of Pac-12 cellar

The Ducks feel like they have some unfinished business after last year's tournament disappointment left a sour taste in their mouths.

Oregon played in the Austin Regional last year. The Ducks lost its opening game against Texas State but rallied to win three straight before losing to Texas in an elimination game.

Last year was a lot of players' first taste of the NCAA Tournament after it was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ducks failing to make the draw in 2019.

Catcher Terra McGowan believes the experience of the Austin Regional, along with the way the team is playing, will help not only the experienced players but also the younger ones on the team.

"All year, we've been talking about what the Texas regional did for our program," McGowan said.

"This team is battle-tested as we don't refer to the freshmen as freshmen anymore. We just let them know to take one game at a time and enjoy it.

"I think our freshmen are elite and they're going to handle their own out there."

Along with the Ducks, Oregon State was also selected for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018 and the 15th time in program history. The Beavers earned a No. 3 seed in the Knoxville Regional as they will play against No. 2 seed Ohio State on Friday.

No. 1 seeded Tennessee will host fourth-seeded Campbell in the first game on Friday. The winner of the double-elimination regional will play a best-of-three Super Regional against the winner of the Tuscaloosa Regional.

Contact Register-Guard sportswriter Antwan Staley at astaley@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @antwanstaley.