To no one’s surprise, the Arizona Wildcats softball team has made the NCAA Tournament for the 32nd year in a row.
The 2018 bracket was revealed Sunday and Arizona earned the No. 14 overall seed and will host the Tucson Regional — a four-team, double-elimination tournament— starting Friday.
Joining UA in its regional are St. Francis (PA), Mississippi State, and North Dakota State.
Mississippi State and North Dakota State will play at 6 p.m. MST on ESPN 2 on Friday. Arizona and Saint Francis (PA) meet at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN3 in the nightcap.
Friday’s winners will play at 2 p.m. on Saturday while Friday’s losers will play at 4:30 p.m. in an elimination game. The loser of game 3 and the winner of game 4 will play at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
Sunday’s regional championship will begin at 4 p.m. with the if-necessary second game set to begin at 6:30 p.m
The winner of Tucson Regional will advance to Super Regionals where they will likely face the UCLA Bruins, the No. 3 overall seed, in Los Angeles.
UCLA swept Arizona in Tucson earlier this season, outscoring the Wildcats, 24-12. The two schools are longtime rivals and powerhouses but have never met in Super Regionals.
.@jessmendoza is excited about the possibility of an Arizona-UCLA Super Regional pic.twitter.com/bCS2EKBYk2
— Ryan Kelapire (@RKelapire) May 14, 2018
Arizona went 40-14 this year, including a 13-11 mark in the Pac-12, which was good for fifth in the conference.
Arizona has won 11 of its last 12 heading into the postseason, though it dropped its regular-season finale to Stanford in Palo Alto on Saturday.
Like UCLA, Oregon (1), Washington (5), and Arizona State (8) are also Top-8 seeds and on track to host Super Regionals, barring any upsets.
Arizona’s 32-year streak of making the NCAA Tournament is the longest in the nation, but the eight-time national champions are still searching for their first Women’s College World Series appearance since 2010.
The road to Oklahoma City begins Friday.