Cal Sports Report

Cal Earns a Berth in NCAA Softball Tournament but Faces a Challenge

Bears travel to the regional hosted by Oklahoma, which has won the past four national titles. Cal opens against Omaha on Friday
Jake Curtis|
Cal reaches NCAA softball tournament
Cal reaches NCAA softball tournament | Photo by Mark Madsen, KLC Fotos

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California Golden Bears

Cal earned a berth in the NCAA Softball Tournament field, which was announced Sunday, and the Golden Bears even got a No. 2 seed in its four-team regional.

But advancing out of that regional and into the Super Regional will be a challenge, because Cal has to travel to Norman, Oklahoma, where the host team is Oklahoma. The Sooners have won each of the past four national championships, and they are the No. 2 overall seed in the 64-team NCAA tournament.

Cal (35-19) is in the NCAA tournament for the third straight year. Last year, the Bears were sent to the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, regional and were beaten twice by Southern Illinois and eliminated. In 2023, Cal was sent to Norman, Oklahoma, and the Bears got to the championship round before being eliminated by Oklahoma, which went on to win the third of its four straight national titles.

Cal's only national softball title came in 2002, and the Bears were a No. 3 seed in its regional that year.

Cal has a winning record against Oklahoma alltime, winning 11 of their 18 meetings, but the most recent matchup came in that 2023 NCAA tournament when Cal lost to the Sooners in a run-rule 16.3, five-inning Sooner victory.

This year, the Bears’ will begin play in the double-elimination regional against Omaha (39-11) on Friday at 12:30 p.m.  The game will be televised on ESPN+. 

Oklahoma (45-7) will face Boston University (38-17) in the second game that day.

The two winners of Friday’s game will meet on Saturday, and the two losers on Friday will play an elimination game on Saturday.

The winners of the 16 regionals advance to the Super Regionals, which match two teams in a best-of-three series at the home field of the higher seeded team. The eight winners of the Super Regionals advance to the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Cal earned the No. 2 seed in its regional despite finishing ninth in the ACC standings and losing in the first round of the ACC tournament. However, the Bears have a strong RPI ranking of No. 28, and the ACC is considered a strong softball conference.

Seven of the top eight overall seeds went to teams from the Southeastern Conference. The only exception was fifth-seeded Florida State from the ACC.

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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