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SALT LAKE CITY — The Holy War could be coming to the NCAA softball tournament this week.
For the first time in program history, 11th-seeded Utah will host Fordham and No. 20 BYU will face Mississippi State in the Salt Lake City regional at Dumke Family Softball Stadium on Thursday through Saturday, as announced by the NCAA on Sunday night.
BYU will face Mississippi State at 4 p.m. MDT on ESPN3, followed by Utah and Fordham at 6:30 p.m. MDT. The winners will advance to the regional's winner's bracket final of the double-elimination regional.
That means the Cougars (44-11) and Utes (33-14) could potentially meet in a rematch of a regular-season game in Provo, which BYU won over then-No. 13 Utah 4-3 on March 22.
Fordham (45-15) won its fifth-straight Atlantic 10 title with a 2-1 win over Massachusetts on Sunday. Mississippi State finished the regular season with a 36-20 record after a 2-1 loss to rival Ole Miss in the opening round of the SEC tournament last Wednesday. The Bulldogs are led by all-SEC honorees Caroline Seitz and Amanda Ivy.
The Cougars finished the regular season with a 44-11 record, including a 14-1 mark in West Coast Conference play en route to their fourth-straight WCC title and ninth-straight title in four different conferences.
BYU is led by pitcher McKenna Bull, who holds six school records, including wins (106), shutouts (32) and saves (13).
BYU won its only meeting with then-No. 13 Utah 4-3 on March 22 in Provo. The Cougars also have wins over then-No. 12 Georgia and then-No. 13 Washington, with losses to then-No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 2 Auburn, No. 9 Arizona, No. 18 Texas A&M and No. 16 UCLA before nearly running the table in WCC play before a 1-0 loss at Saint Mary’s on the regular season’s final day.
No. 11 Utah (33-14) finished fifth in the Pac 12, which saw two teams tabbed as No. 1 seeds in Arizona and Oregon. The Utes were 13-9 in conference play, and had the 16th-best RPI nationally.
Utah heads to their third-straight NCAA Tournament, a program record, and 15th overall. The team is 21-32 all-time in postseason play, including a 20-24 mark in regional tournaments.
This year’s squad is led by Hannah Flippen, a 5-foot-4 slugger from Bonita, California who bats .424 with 10 home runs and 15 extra-base hits.
Along with Arizona and Oregon, Florida and Florida State also earned No. 1 seeds and regional host bids.
