The Big Ten Softball Tournament is Coming up!

It's diamond time! How many Big Ten teams will go dancing?

Friends, it is Big Ten Tournament time!

Twelve softball teams will take center stage in West Lafayette starting on Wednesday. To Illinois, Michigan State, Minnesota, Maryland and Rutgers, I’m sorry but your season is done. And USC, you have like a million sports; how do you have a varsity rowing team but not softball?

Anyway, let’s see the bracket!

I’ve got a rough draft of my advanced stats sheet for reference, but it’s not quite ready for publication.

Fair warning: I sadly haven’t watched nearly enough softball this season. So, I’m a little bit writing this on the fly. I hope it’s helpful!

Here’s what to watch for:

Quack! Quack! Quack!

The Oregon Ducks were not expected to do much entering the year. They got bounced in regionals last year, and haven’t made the Women’s College World Series since 2018, Mike White’s last year in town (when he took half the roster with him). They were the #23 team in the preseason ESPN.com poll.

Now, they’re #3.

They took one surprise loss to Michigan State on Friday, but, hey, you can’t win them all. They’re 19-3 in conference play, and have been the Big Ten’s best team since the start of conference season.

Leading the way is Lyndsey Grein, a transfer pitcher from Virginia Tech who has dominated the conference. She’s 26-2 in this year. She seems to be a lock for Pitcher of the Year, and could get national recognition, too. Circlemate Elise Sokolsky has been nearly just as good.

Offensively, Rylee McCoy (17 HRs) and Kendre Luschar (.466 average and 25 SBs) lead the way as two of the conference’s top producers.

Bahl up Top

If there’s one story in the Big Ten, though, it’s the return of Jordy Bahl. Bahl missed essentially all of last year with an injury, after her seismic transfer from Oklahoma.

This year, she’s been the Big Ten’s best and most exciting player.

She’s doing it both ways. Offensively, she’s been dominant. One of, if not the Big Ten’s best hitters, with a .467 average and 19 HRs. Somehow, after not hitting for multiple years.

And in the circle, she’s even better. She has a 1.46 ERA, and 234 Ks to 67 BBs. Seven complete game shutouts. Her offense has been worth about 1.5 wins above average, and her pitching worth three.

It’s propelled Nebraska to one of their best seasons in years, with a chance to be even better. Bahl is going to dominate postseason play. That includes this weekend, where it wouldn’t be surprising to see her take the Huskers all the way home.

‘Cats on the Rise?

Northwestern looked dead in the water. Non-conference play was rough, and the start of the Big Ten season wasn’t much better. They were 26-16 and down 3-0, three outs away from a series loss to lowly Wisconsin.

Enter Kaylie Avvisato. After two runs came across, the freshman sent a two-run blast out of the park. Walk off home run.

So, time to head off to California to face top-10 UCLA. That should be a rout, right? The last time Northwestern played a Top-25 team, they lost three games to Nebraska by a combined score of 25-2.

But this was different. A huge offensive showing and monster performances in the circle from Lauren Boyd won the ‘Cats two out of three in an upset.

That should get them into the tournament.

Tournament Stakes

Speaking of the NCAA tournament, we’ll see more Big Ten teams in the field this year, but that’s mostly coming from the new western teams; Oregon will host a super regional. UCLA and Megan Grant now will not, but they and Nebraska have a good chance to be regional hosts, depending on how this weekend goes.

The Ohio State Buckeyes, after a monster offensive season led by Jasmyn Burns (.473 AVG and 22 HRs) are in the field. Northwestern is way down at #57 in RPI, but their 16-6 conference mark and two wins over UCLA should be enough.

Washington and Michigan are two teams on the bubble, and likely need a win or two this week. Indiana and Wisconsin are on the other side of the bubble based on recent projections. None of those four teams could finish the season with a sweep, however. We shall see!