
NCAA Softball Tournament 2015: Super Regionals Bracket and Schedule Info
So far, the 2015 NCAA softball tournament has largely gone according to plan, with most of the ranked teams advancing to the super regionals. Most importantly, the No. 1 Florida Gators and No. 2 Oregon Ducks remain on a crash course for the national championship.
Play in the regional finals wrapped up late Sunday night, with the No. 13 Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns beating the Baylor Bears and the Arizona Wildcats outlasting the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Those teams were the last two dominoes to fall before the 16-team regional final field came into focus. You can view the full bracket on NCAA.com. Here's a look at the eight matchups for the round.
| Gainesville | No. 1 Florida vs. Kentucky |
| Game 1 | Sat., May 23 at 1 p.m. ET |
| Game 2 | Sun., May 24 at 12 p.m. ET |
| Game 3 | Sun., May 24 at 3 p.m. ET |
| Knoxville | No. 9 Florida State vs. No. 8 Tennessee |
| Game 1 | Thurs., May 21 at 7 p.m. ET |
| Game 2 | Fri., May 22 at 4 p.m. ET |
| Game 3 | Fri., May 22 at 7 p.m. ET |
| Baton Rouge | No. 5 LSU vs. No. 12 Arizona |
| Game 1 | Sat., May 23 at 10 p.m. ET |
| Game 2 | Sun., May 24 at 5 p.m. ET |
| Game 3 | Sun., May 24 at 8 p.m. ET |
| Auburn | No. 4 Auburn vs. No. 13 Louisiana-Lafayette |
| Game 1 | Fri., May 22 at 2 p.m. ET |
| Game 2 | Sat., May 23 at TBA |
| Game 3 | Sat., May 23 at TBA |
| Ann Arbor | No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 14 Georgia |
| Game 1 | Thurs., May 21 at 9 p.m. ET |
| Game 2 | Fri., May 22 at 6 p.m. ET |
| Game 3 | Fri., May 22 at 9 p.m. ET |
| Tuscaloosa | No. 6 Alabama vs. No. 11 Oklahoma |
| Game 1 | Fri., May 22 at 7 p.m. ET |
| Game 2 | Sat., May 23 at 5 p.m. ET |
| Game 3 | Sat., May 23 at 8 p.m. ET |
| Los Angeles | No. 10 Missouri vs. No. 7 UCLA |
| Game 1 | Sat., May 23 at 8 p.m. ET |
| Game 2 | Sun., May 24 at 3 p.m. ET |
| Game 3 | Sun., May 24 at 6 p.m. ET |
| Eugene | No. 2 Oregon vs. North Carolina State |
| Game 1 | Fri., May 22 at 9 p.m. ET |
| Game 2 | Sat., May 23 at 3 p.m. ET |
| Game 3 | Sat., May 23 at 6 p.m. ET |
Both Florida and Oregon made quick work of the regionals. The Gators and Ducks needed just three games before they were through, with the former failing to surrender a single run in those three games.
The reigning national champions got eight shutout innings of two-hit ball from Lauren Haeger in a 1-0 extra-innings victory over the Florida Atlantic Owls on Sunday, which secured the Gators' passage. Rounding out her performance, she also drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth.
"Not nerve-racking at all," Haeger said regarding any potential anxiety she might have felt in such a critical game, per Chris Harry of GatorZone.com. "That's my favorite thing in the whole entire world is to be out there in situations like that. The crowd was in it. Everyone was in it. Everyone was hyped. That's why I came here for situations like that. I didn't come here not to be nervous. It was really fun."
It seems pretty clear that any sort of complacency after last year's title win won't be creeping into this Florida team. The players firmly have their eyes on back-to-back championships.
Oregon got a similarly impressive performance from its starting pitcher as it progressed to the super regionals. Karissa Hovinga threw six innings Saturday in a 6-1 win over the North Dakota State Bison, allowing one run on two hits.
Should Oregon and Florida meet in the championship series, ESPN Stats & Info produced a stat that may be a bit foreboding for the Ducks:
Mike Strange of the Knoxville News Sentinel noted how the SEC generally cleaned up in the regionals:
One team that might help to break up the SEC's dominance is the Michigan Wolverines. They'll get the Georgia Bulldogs in the super regionals after going a perfect 3-0 in the last round.
The Big Ten champions won their three regional games by a combined score of 28-5, and two of their victories were over after six innings.
Michigan's most dominating performance came against the Oakland Golden Grizzlies last Friday. The Wolverines were up 7-1 after three innings and dropped two more runs in the fifth and sixth innings to put Oakland away for good.
Steve Kornacki of MGoBlue.com highlighted how they've been on a roll basically ever since the postseason began:
Michigan has certainly done quite a bit to prove itself worthy of competing for a national title.
A best-of-three series can be unpredictable, though. Two close losses and the Wolverines will be heading home, and the same goes for the Gators and Ducks.
The three teams have been among the best in the country all year, but a few bad innings can undo all of that work in the super regionals.

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