Auburn softball is officially going to the big dance. The Tigers were selected as the No. 2 seed in the Clemson Regional of the NCAA Tournament, which will be played May 20-22.
Hosting the region as the 10th overall seed in the tournament is No. 15 Clemson. Joining the two Tiger squads in the regional are Louisiana and North Carolina-Wilmington. UNCW comes in as champions of the Colonel Athletic Conference, and Louisiana won the Sun Belt Conference Championship.
In its first game, No. 17 Auburn (39-15) will take on the No. 25 Ragin' Cajuns (45-11)at 1:30 p.m. CST on Friday, May 20th. The game will be streamed on ESPN+. The Tigers finished their season at 39-15, with Sun Belt Champion Louisiana ending its at 45-11.
“We are going to have to be strong in the circle,” said head coach Mickey Dean. “There’s no doubt about that. This is a great hitting regional. Once you get to championship play, it is about who can play clean defense and not give up those extra bases. Those are the two big things.”
This will be the 17th time Auburn has reached the postseason, but Louisiana is coming off its third consecutive conference title. Auburn is 2-1 when facing the Ragin' Cajuns, with the pair of wins coming in the 2015 Auburn Super Regional.
The tournament is double elimination while teams are in bracket play, so Auburn is guaranteed at least two games. On the other side of the regional bracket sits 39-15 Clemson and 32-13 UNCW.
The winner of the Clemson Regional advances to face the winner of the Stillwater Regional for the Super Regional. The Super Regionals are played in a best-of-three format to see who goes on to the College World Series.
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Callie Stanford, junior in communications, is the sports editor at the Auburn Plainsman. Currently a junior, she has been with The Plainsman since January 2021.
Twitter: @Stanford1Callie
