By Walt Austin
The Tigers begin the #RoadToOKC in truth, today.
For the second straight season, Auburn is hosting a NCAA Softball Regional. The 4th seeded Tigers are looking to repeat last year's program first of reaching the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City. To do that, they'll first have to get through their Regional group, which consists of Jacksonville State, Oregon State, and USC Upstate.
The Tigers' first opponent will be the Jacksonville State Gamecocks, winners of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. The Gamecocks finished the season with a 41-15 overall record and undefeated in the Ohio Valley Conference. That's a pretty spectacular achievement, but when you look at their games against SEC competition, you see that the scores were never really close. The fell to Mizzou 0-8, Georgia 0-9, Florida 0-10, and Alabama 3-10.
The first game of the Regional, which is already underway as I publish this, is between Oregon State and USC Upstate. The Spartans of USC Upstate finished 42-13 overall with an 11-6 record in their conference. They narrowly lost to South Carolina 1-0 in their only game against an SEC team, but they did knock off Virginia and Ohio State on their way to winning the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament. Oregon State, meanwhile, comes from the extremely tough Pac12. They finished the year at 30-18-1. They were 10-14 in conference play and finished 7th in the Conference.
Stats
Similar to what we do with baseball, let's see how all of the teams line up statistically:
| Auburn | JSU | USC Upstate | OSU | |
| Batting AVG | .333 | .311 | .312 | .310 |
| Slugging % | .551 | .493 | .501 | .463 |
| On-base % | .452 | .389 | .391 | .383 |
| Opponent BA | .217 | .237 | .219 | .231 |
| ERA | 2.20 | 2.69 | 2.52 | 3.24 |
| Opponent ERA | 7.61 | 4.97 | 5.16 | 4.86 |
And here you see why Auburn is the 4th seed in the tournament. The Tigers are better in every statistical category. It's close in opponents' batting average, but that's really about it. Auburn's pitching and hitting are far better than the other teams in the Regional, and only Oregon State plays in a league that is equal to the SEC.
I'm not saying Auburn will cruise through this Regional. Every team that got to the NCAA Tournament did so because they're good and believe in themselves. The other teams are going to be highly motivated to play at the highest level in hopes that they can upset the national seed. Just looking at the stats, though, Auburn should be able to use the home field advantage and superior players to advance to next week's Super Regional.
How to Watch
This is going to be difficult to project. The official ESPN bracket shows no games on broadcast television. However, the OSU vs USC-U game is on ESPNU right now. The broadcast schedule could change. What won't change, though - barring more weather - are the game times.
AUBURN REGIONAL
May 20-22 | Auburn, Alabama
Friday, May 20
Game 1: USC Upstate vs. Oregon State, Noon, ESPN3
Game 2: Jacksonville State vs. (4) Auburn, 2:30 p.m., ESPN3
Saturday, May 21
Game 3: Teams TBD, 2:30 p.m., ESPN3
Game 4: Teams TBD, 5 p.m., ESPN3
Game 5: Teams TBD, 7:30 p.m., ESPN3
Sunday, May 22
Game 6: Teams TBD, 2:30 p.m.
Game 7 (if necessary): Teams TBD, 5 p.m.
So how does this work? Well, Game 3 will be played between the losers of Games 1 and 2. Game 4 features the winner of Games 1 and 2. Game 5 will feature the winner of Game 3 and the loser of Game 4. The winner of that game will then go on to face the winner of Game 4 on Sunday. If the Game 4 winner wins Game 6, then the Regional is over. If the Game 4 winner is defeated, then it goes to a Game 7 for all the marbles.
Auburn may not have to play each team involved in this Regional. Last season the Tigers did not play a team because they were defeated in Game 1 and Game 3.
May 20, 2016 at 11:24AM
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