First baseman J.J. Smith celebrates hitting an RBI single to give the Bobcats a 9-5 lead. The Bobcats will play in the NCAA Tournament at the College Station Regional against Penn State.
Daily Record photo by Gerald Castillo
Bobcats head to College Station for tournament
Texas State will go to the Texas A&M Regional as the No. 2 seed for the NCAA Softball Tournament, as announced in the NCAA Softball Selection Show on Sunday.
The Bobcats and Head Coach Ricci Woodard will face the Penn State Nittany Lions in the opening round of the tournament where the winner will play the winner of Texas A&M versus Albany in a double elimination tournament. The winner of the regional will advance to Super Regionals with a shot of qualifying for the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.
“It would have been nice to host, but it’s always nice to stay close to home,” Woodard said. “I’m excited. This puts us in a good spot where fans can come watch, and we are in a familiar place. It’s a pretty good draw in my opinion.”
Texas State is heading to their 12th NCAA Tournament in program history after qualifying for the tournament last year as an At-Large bid.
The Bobcats defeated Louisiana to not only capture the conference tournament title for the first time since 2018 but also securing the automatic bid. That broke Louisiana’s four-year streak of winning the Sun Belt Conference tournament.
During last year’s tournament at the Austin Regional, Texas State fell to Texas A&M in the first game before defeating Seton Hall. The Bobcats were eliminated by Texas A&M in their second meeting.
This will be the first time Texas State will play a NCAA Regional Tournament game in College Station since 2017 and just the third since 2012.
Texas State will battle Penn State Friday night at 3 p.m. from Davis Diamond Field in College Station.
Both the Bobcats and the Nittany Lions battled in a three game series during the regular season with Texas State taking the sweep.
cmcwilliams@sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc
