College Softball News

2017 Salt Lake City Regional Preview

Photo courtesy of BYU Athletics

Salt Lake City Regional 

The Utah Regional will take place and begin on Thursday at the Dumke Family Softball Stadium. BYU will play Mississippi State on Thursday at 4 p.m. with the Utes taking on Fordham, champions of the Atlantic 10, in the nightcap at approximately 6:30 p.m. All of the games can be seen live via ESPN3.

Top Seed

Utah Softball will host a NCAA Regional for the first time in program history. The Utes were named the 11th seed by the NCAA committee. The Utes went 33-14 overall and finished fifth in the Pac-12 Conference with a record of 13-9. With 11 wins against teams ranked in the Top 25, including a series victory over No. 1 Arizona, a sweep of No. 10 UCLA in Westwood and shutouts of No. 13 Tennessee and No. 7 LSU, Utah will be heading to the NCAA Tournament for a record third year in a row and 15th time overall. The Utes have an all-time record of 21-32 in NCAA postseason play, including a 20-24 record in Regional Tournaments. The Utes had five players selected to the first and second PAC 12 All-Conference teams and senior Hannah Flippen was named the PAC 12 Player of the Year.

Best Shot at Upset

BYU has the best shot at the upset at this Regional. However, we wouldn’t really consider it an upset. Utah and the Cougars met this season in Provo with BYU coming out on top, 4-3. The Cougars lead the all-time series with the Utes 33-17, including a 13-10 mark on the road. In 2016, BYU played at Utah and won 5-4. The Utes are 4-2 all-time vs. Mississippi State with the last contest occurring in 2005 and 1-0 vs. Fordham with the only meeting in 2007.

Players to Watch

BYU’s McKenna Bull has been dominant in the circle all season for the Cougars. Bull enters the Regional with a record of 29-5 and a 1.23 ERA in 199.2 innings pitched. She has also notched 226 strikeouts on the season.

Utah’s Hannah Flippen was just named The Pac 12 Conference’s Player of the Year for the 2017 season. Flippen was also named Defensive Player of the Year. Flippen ranks among the top 10 in the Pac-12 in a number of offensive categories such as batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, runs batted in, runs scored, doubles and total bases. The 2016 Pac-12 Player of the Year started every game of her career and will leave with the school records for runs scored and batting average and currently ranks third all-time in walks and hits.

Prediction

We predict that BYU will advance out of this region. The Cougars just came off a 2017 West Coast Conference title win and are 44-11 on the season and 14-1 in WCC play. With McKenna Bull on the mound, the Cougars should be able to come out on top if their offense produces.

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