After a magical run to a Big West Tournament Championship, the UC Santa Barbara softball team received an NCAA Tournament bid for the first time since 2007.
The Gauchos won six consecutive elimination games, navigating their way out of the losers’ bracket, culminating in a 7-5 victory over Cal State Northridge in the championship final.
At the NCAA selection show on Sunday, the Gauchos were seeded No. 4 at the Los Angeles Regional, which is hosted by UCLA. The Bruins are the No. 1 seed, Arizona State is the No. 2 seed, and San Diego State is the No. 3 seed.
UC Santa Barbara will play No. 1 seed and ninth overall national seed UCLA in the Los Angeles Regional opening round. The game between the Gauchos and Bruins will be at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, May 16.
This is the fourth time the Gauchos have made it to the NCAA tournament in the program’s 43-year history. All previous NCAA tournament appearances came as an at-large team. This is the first time the Gauchos will enter the National Tournament as the automatic qualifier after winning their first-ever conference championship.
