Texas State Softball: Waco Regional Bound

A day after grabbing a dramatic comeback win over McNeese State to win the Southland Conference Tournament, the Texas State softball team learned tonight of their postseason fate during the 2009 NCAA Division 1 Softball Selection Show on ESPNU. In what many analysts are likening to a meat-grinder of a bracket, the Bobcats will join two top 25 teams in Northwestern and Louisiana-Lafayette and a familiar Big 12 foe in Baylor at the Waco Regional starting this Friday. The Bobcat players will tell you that they welcome a challenge, and well, they certainly were handed one by the NCAA selection committee. After having a few days to rest up, Texas State will be thrown into the fire as they face the 12-seeded Northwestern Wildcats in their first game of the double-elimination regional on Friday at 5 pm.

Northwestern University, out of Chicago (not Natchitoches, that's Northwestern State), was oddly not picked to host the regional despite having the top overall seed of the four teams headed to Waco. The Wildcats sport an overall record of 31-13 and finished with a 14-6 Big Ten record to finish third in their conference standings. It may not sound like much, but keep in mind that the Big Ten saw 6 of its 11 participants receive bids to the NCAA tournament. This team will easily be one of the toughest that Texas State has faced all year, as the 12th-ranked Wildcats have consistently beaten elite competition in #7 Arizona, #8 Tennessee (twice), #6 Oklahoma, #23 Iowa (twice), and Big Ten conference champion and 8th-ranked Michigan twice.

Northwestern also has two players that are batting over .400 on the season in Tammy Williams and Adrienne Monka, and what's even scarier is that 5 different players have hit over 10 home runs for this Wildcat squad. This opening matchup will likely be the greatest test that Chandler Hall or Katie Garnett will have on the year, if not in their entire careers. Ace pitcher Lauren Delaney has far and away received the most starts for Northwestern, as she sports a 29-10 record with a 2.55 ERA while recording an insane 306 strikeouts on the season. However, if Delaney gets in trouble against Texas State, the Bobcats could exploit a potential weakness in this otherwise-loaded Northwestern team, as their backup options at pitcher are not nearly as experienced or proficient at mowing down hitters.

Host Baylor (37-20, 11-7 Big 12), who Texas State defeated 2-0 in Waco this season, is also going to have a tough opening foe of their own in #25 Louisiana-Lafayette (38-10, 18-5 SBC). While the Ragin' Cajuns' resume is not nearly as impressive as Northwestern's, ULL still plowed through the Sun Belt Conference this season in a manner not much different than how Texas State mowed down the Southland. Baylor finished 3rd in a tough Big 12 Conference and has victories against teams such as the #1 Florida Gators, #9 Oklahoma, and Texas.

The Bobcats will face one of these two teams regardless of whether they win or lose to Northwestern on Friday since the regional format is double elimination, so Coach Woodard & company will no doubt be keeping an eye on both squads. The winner of the Waco Regional will advance to the Superregionals to take on the winner of the Ann Arbor Regional, but Texas State has their work cut out for them if they want to get there.

Obviously, there will be a number of questions in the minds of Bobcat fans heading into this weekend. Will we see the Texas State team that took down Texas, Texas A&M, Houston and Baylor or the Texas State team that lost heartbreakers to UTSA, SFA, Texas Tech and North Texas? Will fans see some more stellar pitching from SLC Tournament MVP Chandler Hall, or some additional late-inning heroics by Ryan Kos, Alyce Rother or Leah Boatright? Will an unsung hero play a big role for the Bobcats? You can find out this weekend if you drive to watch the Bobcat softball squad take on some of the best teams in the country in Waco next weekend, or you can listen to the games on txstatebobcats.com, and possibly 89.9 FM and ktsw.net if the games are not at the same time as the 2009 Graduation Broadcast on KTSW.

- Will Butler, KTSW Sports Director/Blog Editor