Indiana Softball Earns Third Straight NCAA Tournament Bid

Indiana’s softball team was selected for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday. It’s the third straight time the Hoosiers have been selected.

Indiana will be the No. 3-seeded team at the Fayetteville Regional hosted by Arkansas. Indiana will play No. 2-seed Oklahoma State at 4 p.m. ET on Friday at Arkansas.

The host Razorbacks will play No. 4-seed Saint Louis at 6:30 p.m. ET in the other game at the regional. It is a double-elimination format.

The Razorbacks are the fourth overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. It means the Hoosiers received one of the last at-large bids available in the 64-team field.

Indiana (33-18) went 1-1 at the single-elimination Big Ten Tournament played at Purdue. The Hoosiers beat Washington 2-0 and then fell to 10th-ranked UCLA 5-4 last Thursday.

Indiana won two of the final three series it played in Big Ten play. The Hoosiers took two of three against Purdue and 19th-ranked Nebraska.

Indiana earned an at-large bid thanks to strong performances against the best of Division I. The Hoosiers were 6-12 in Quad 1 RPI contests. Indiana’s combined Quad 1-2 record was 15-18.

Indiana was the best hitting team in the Big Ten by a wide margin. The Hoosiers batted .368 as a team, 16 percentage points better than runner-up Nebraska. The Hoosiers lead the Big Ten in doubles with 107.

Outfielder Taylor Minnick was first team All-Big Ten as she won the conference batting crown with a .470 average. She hit .433 in Big Ten games, 72 percentage points better than any other batter.

Minnick hit 16 home runs, had 63 RBI, and led the Big Ten with 24 doubles.

Catcher Avery Parker was second team All-Big Ten. She hit 11 home runs, had 58 RBI, and batted .401.

Brianna Copeland is a pitching standout as she struck out 141 batters in 140 2/3 innings in the circle.

Oklahoma State (33-18) finished fourth in the Big 12.

Indiana is 13-19 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. The Hoosiers have not advanced out of the regional round since 1986 when they played in the College World Series. Indiana’s last win in the NCAA Tournament was a 4-2 victory over Louisville in the 2023 NCAA Tournament in the Knoxville Regional.