Cal Gets to the Championship Round of the NCAA Softball Regional

Cal’s second shutout win over Omaha in two days – a 4-0 victory over Omaha Saturday night -- pushed Cal into the championship round of the NCAA Softball Regional in Norman, Oklahoma.

But now Cal faces a major challenge to reach the Super Regionals for the first time since 2012.

Cal will have to beat host Oklahoma twice on Sunday to win the four-team regional.  And Oklahoma has won the past four national championships, is the No. 2 overall seed in the 64-team NCAA tournament field this year, is 47-7 overall and 24-2 on its home field, and beat Cal 11-2 in a five-inning, run-rule victory in the Bears’ first game Saturday.

What makes the task more difficult is that Cal won’t have much rest for Sunday’s game.  Saturday’s victory over Omaha included a 67-minute lightning delay and did not end until 11:29 p.m. Oklahoma time (9:29 p.m. Pacific time). And the Bears will face Oklahoma 13½ hours after that game ended, with first pitch Sunday schedule for 1 p.m. Oklahoma time (11 a.m. Pacific time).

But at least Cal (37-20) is in position to give it shot, thanks in large part to freshman pitcher Miranda De Nava, who hurled her first seven-inning, complete game shutout of the season. (Two weeks ago she pitched a six-inning shutout of Syracuse that was limited to six innings by the run-rule.)

It's unclear whether De Nava or Annabel Teperson will get the start for the Bears in Sunday's first game against Oklahoma, but De Nava was outstanding on Saturday night.

De Nava gave up just three hits and two walks while striking out six to blank the Mavericks (39-13). On Friday, Cal’s Tesperson allowed just two hits in the Bears’ 1-0 victory over Omaha.

And the losing Omaha pitcher both times was Maddia Groff, who was responsible for eliminating Cal in last year’s NCAA Tournament when she was pitching for Southern Illinois. In 2024, Groff pitched a complete game to hand Cal its first loss in its regional, then pitched 2 1/3 inning of shutout relief to get the save in Southern Illinois’ win that eliminated the Bears.

Cal didn’t do much against Groff this year, but did enough.  Cal used the long ball to get past Omaha on Saturday.  Acacia Anders hit a solo home run off Groff in the first inning, and Lagi Quiroga and Nailyn Marshall smacked solo homers off reliever Alexis Wiggins.  The fourth Cal run came on an RBI single by Mia Phillips in the fourth inning.

That’s all the offense De Nava needed as she raised her record to 13-5 in what was probably her best performance of the season.

Cal pitchers had less success against powerful Oklahoma in the Bears’ early game Saturday.

Oklahoma got 11 runs in just four innings to pile up enough runs to send Cal to the loser’s bracket and an elimination game against Omaha, which beat Boston University 3-1Saturday afternoon to earn the shot at Cal Saturday night.

Teperson lasted only 1 1/3 innings against the Sooners, giving up five earned runs on three hits, three walks and one hit batter. She and reliever Anna Reimers combined to walk seven Oklahoma batters and hit three other Sooners with pitches to give Oklahoma advantages it didn’t need.

Cal ended up with as many hits as Oklahoma – seven apiece – but the free passes and timely hitting by the Sooners doomed the Bears.

A second-inning home run by Cal’s Kaylee Pond matched a first-inning homer Oklahoma’s Kasidi Pickering, tying the score 1-1 heading into the bottom of the second.

That’s when Oklahoma took over, scoring four runs in the bottom of the second with help from the Bears’ pitchers, who issued two walks and hit two batters in the inning.

Two walks and a hit batter loaded the bases and led to three consecutive RBI singles by Oklahoma, the third of which came off Reimers. Reimers then hit the next batter to force in the fourth run of the inning to make it 5-1.

Cal missed opportunities to get back in the game in the third and fourth innings. Anders’ RBI single in the third inning made it 5-2, but when the Bears had the bases loaded with one out later in the inning, Alyssa Herrera grounded into a double play to end the threat.

Cal loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth, but Anders grounded out for the third out in that inning.

Oklahoma added six runs in the bottom of the fourth to make it 11-2, thanks to a pair of home runs. Gabbie Garcia hit a two-run homer to give the Sooners a 7-2 lead, and Pickering hit her second home run of the game, this one a grand slam, to give the Sooners a nine-run advantage.

When Cal was unable to score in the top of the fifth, Oklahoma was declared the winner because it led by eight runs or more after five innings.

Cal is hoping to pull off a major upset on Sunday by beating the Sooners twice on Oklahoma's home field.

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