NCAA Softball Championships 2015 Bracket: Schedule, Matchups and More
The 2015 college softball season is coming to an end. After the final round of conference championships on Sunday, the NCAA announced the 64 teams that will comprise this year's tournament, which will begin at regional locations May 15.
After winning the school's first national championship in 2014, the Florida Gators are favorites to win again this year. The Gators were upset by Tennessee in the semifinals of the SEC tournament, but they won the regular-season conference title and were named one of the top seeds.
Here are the top four seeds as named by the NCAA tournament selection committee, via the NCAA Softball official Twitter account:
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Tournament Dates
| Round | Dates | Location(s) | Watch |
| Regionals (Double-Elimination) | May 15-17 | Gainesville, FL (Florida); South Bend, IN (Indiana); Tallahassee, FL (Florida State); Knoxville, TN (Tennessee); Baton Rouge, LA (LSU); Tucson, AZ (Arizona); Lafayette, LA (Louisiana-Lafayette); Auburn, AL (Auburn); Los Angeles, CA (UCLA); Columbia, MO (Missouri); Harrisonburg, VA (James Madison); Eugene, OR (Oregon); Ann Arbor, MI (Michigan); Athens, GA (Georgia); Norman, OK (Oklahoma); Tuscaloosa, AL (Alabama) | NCAA.com, ESPNU |
| Super Regionals (Best of Three) | May 21-24 | TBD | NCAA.com, ESPNU |
| College World Series | May 28-31 | OGE Energy Field in Oklahoma City | ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU |
| Championship Round (Best of Three) | June 1-3 | OGE Energy Field in Oklahoma City | ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU |
Tournament Bracket (via Joe Buettner of OUDaily.com)
Prediction
The SEC is always a threat this time of year, with 2015 being no exception. In the final RPI regular-season rankings released last week, the conference had six of the top 11 teams and nine in the top 25.
Florida was at the head of the class thanks to a stellar 50-6 record, though the Gators did lose some momentum after falling to Missouri in the regular-season finale and when Tennessee knocked them off on Friday. That didn't prevent the committee from putting them on the top line, via NCAA Softball:
The brief hiccup may lead some to hesitate before taking Tim Walton's team to win.
That would be a mistake, as the Gators are outstanding on both sides of the ball with a team ERA of 1.86 and an average of 7.07 runs per game. Another mark in their favor is a 12-0 record on neutral fields, which they will have to go through to win another national title.
Walton didn't mince words when he told GatorSports.com that Florida's effort in key situations wasn't up to snuff.
“I didn’t think we looked very good on Sunday (last week’s loss at Missouri) or today (Friday), so that’s a big question for me,” Walton said. “We’ve got to toughen this group up this week and get them a little bit better in the clutch.”
Kelsey Stewart is a superstar, winning SEC Player of the Year after hitting .454/.502/.660 with 27 extra-base hits, a team-high 128 total bases and 22 stolen bases. The lineup is balanced, with three players who had a slugging percentage of at least .600 and three players with at least 12 home runs.
Florida's biggest threat outside of the SEC looks to be Oregon. The Ducks actually ended the year ranked No. 1 in both major polls even though the Gators had more first-place votes in the ESPN.com rankings.
Oregon is an offensive juggernaut, ranking third with a .368 team average and fourth with a .468 on-base percentage that helps it score 7.69 runs per game. The pitching isn't a weakness, though it's not as strong as Florida's with a 2.45 ERA.
The Ducks' final moment before the tournament was a 15-7 thrashing of Arizona on Saturday. They won the Pac-12 for the third consecutive season and are making their sixth straight NCAA tournament appearance, advancing to the semifinals in two of the last three years.
Despite not having the individual mashers that Florida does, Oregon hit seven more home runs as a team (77) than the Gators (70) and had seven players who hit at least six dingers. Koral Costa, who led the Ducks with 14 homers, is the engine that drives the machine.
Gwen Svekis has been a hero off the bench and as a part-time starter for Oregon. She has only started 20 games this season, but she made them count with an .863 slugging percentage and six home runs in 73 at-bats. The freshman standout hasn't looked overmatched by the college stage one bit and will only get better with more experience.
The sleeper in the tournament is Alabama, which got a good draw to start, but a potential matchup with Michigan in the super regional is worrisome. The Crimson Tide got terrific pitching in the regular season, finishing 11th in the nation with a 1.89 ERA.
Alabama's offense is not an overwhelming strength, at least compared to Florida and Oregon, with an average of 6.69 runs per game.
The problem with the Crimson Tide's offensive output is they are so dependent on Marisa Runyon, who had 17 of the team's 49 homers and 70 of 321 RBIs, that one off day from her is going to make it difficult for the lineup to piece together runs.
In a deep year with many teams capable of winning a title, including Michigan and LSU, college softball has been building toward a showdown between Florida and Oregon. The Gators are becoming the nation's biggest powerhouse and want to defend their title, while the Ducks have been inching closer to a title since 2012.
Unlike the basketball selection committee, which put Kentucky and Wisconsin on the same side of the bracket, the softball selection committee has made sure that if Florida and Oregon are on a crash course to meet, it happens in the championship series, as the Ducks are the No. 2 overall seed.
Stats via NCAA.com
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