EUGENE, Ore. - A comeback attempt against No. 11 Oregon came up short for the BYU softball team but the Cougars bounced back to defeat Portland State and set up a rematch in the championship game of the Regional.

BYU (45-14) lost 6-4 to the Ducks but beat Portland State 2-0 in the second game of the day. The Cougars will play Oregon starting Saturday at 12 p.m. PT and will have to beat the Ducks twice in order to advance to the Super Regional.

Game 1

After scoring a run on an infield single, Oregon went up 5-0 on a grand slam by Christie Nieto in the third inning to put BYU in an early hole in the Cougars' opening game.

But BYU didn't go down without a fight despite the big deficit and the loss of WAC Player of the Year Delaney Willard, out with a hand injury suffered against Mississippi State on Thursday.

With runners on second and third in the top of the very next inning, senior Stacie Toney hit an RBI single that resulted in two runs when the throw to the first baseman went wide, enabling both Tiffany Messerschmidt and Katie Manuma to score.

After Oregon scratched a single run across to go up 6-2, BYU came out and loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth with a leadoff walk by Ashlee Brawley and singles from Shelbi Everett and Jessica Dugas.

Messerschmidt and Manuma both drew bases loaded walks to bring two across, but BYU couldn't get a hit when it needed to, coming out of the inning with just the two runs scored.

Caroline Umphlett and Tori Almond each threw one scoreless inning in relief of starter Hannah Howell, but Oregon starter Jessica Moore and her 10-strikeout effort held off the Cougars.

Game 2

Behind a strong outing by Tori Almond, BYU advanced to the Regional championship with a 2-0 win over Portland State.

Almond threw the complete game shutout by allowing only two hits and two walks with seven strikeouts. Almond a Pacific All-Region Second Team selection, is 20-3 now this year, becoming the fifth Cougar pitcher to win 20 games in a season and joining Hannah Howell as the first BYU pitching tandem to both win 20 games in the same season.

Dugas went 2 for 3 with a double, a run and an RBI for the Cougars. Toney had a hit and brought in BYU's other run.

With runners on second and third, Toney hit a grounder past the pitcher Anna Bertrand into no-man's land, bringing in the first run of the game in the bottom of the first.

BYU added an insurance run in the fifth when Dugas laced a hit past the Viking third baseman who couldn't her glove down fast enough to stop the grounder. Carly Duckworth scored on the play.

BYU will play in the final day of a Regional for the third-straight season. The Cougars won out in 2010 to move on to the Super Regional but lost to Washington last season in the Saturday matchup.

EUGENE, Ore. - The BYU softball team will play its first game of the NCAA Regional on Thursday against Mississippi State at Haws Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.

The Cougars take a 14-game win streak into the postseason after most recently winning the Western Athletic Conference Tournament. BYU has won 19 of its last 20 games overall since April 11. BYU boasts five All-WAC honorees, including senior Delaney Willard, second in the nation with 88 RBIs on the year, and junior JC Clayton who is on a 14-game hit streak and has 77 hits this season, fourth most in the country.

Under BYU head coach Gordon Eakin, BYU is making its eighth-straight NCAA postseason appearance and has a record of 12-16 in eight previous apperances. In 2010, the Cougars reached their first-ever Super Regional after winning the Austin Regional in a three-game sweep.

Other teams in the Eugene Regional include Oregon, third-place finishers in the Pac-12, and Portland State, the Pacific Coast Conference Tournament champions.

Mississippi State is 33-22 on the season and is making its first NCAA trip in three years. The Bulldogs are 2-0 against BYU all-time, with the two teams last facing each other in 2007.

For complete game notes, see the PDF link at the bottom of the page.

Tournament Schedule (Pacific Time)

Thursday, May 17
3 p.m. - Game 1 - BYU vs. Mississippi State
6 p.m. - Game 2 - Oregon vs. Portland State
 
Friday, May 18
11 a.m. - Game 3 - Games 1 & 2 Winners
2 p.m. - Game 4 - Games 1 & 2 Losers
5 p.m. - Game 5 - Game 4 Winner vs. Game 3 Loser

Saturday, May 19
Noon - Game 6 - Game 3 Winner vs. Game 5 Winner
3 p.m. - Game 7 (if necessary) - same teams as Game 6


COUGAR QUICK HITS
— BYU has a record of 12-16 in its previous eight NCAA Tournaments and is 5-6 over the last two seasons, including an appearance in its first and only Super Regional in 2010.
— BYU is currently on a 14-game win streak, including a three-game run through the WAC Tournament. The streak is the third longest in program history behind two other streaks of 16 games apiece.
— Senior outfielder Delaney Willard was voted the WAC Player of the Year and All-WAC First Team by league coaches. Senior Jessica Dugas and junior JC Clayton were also named to the First Team while sophomores Tori Almond and Katie Manuma were among the Second Team honorees.
— Delaney Willard currently has 88 RBI, a new WAC single-season record and three away from the BYU record of 90 set by Angie Quiocho in 2010. She is ranked second in the nation just behind ULL’s Christi Orgeron (91 RBI).
Willard is an All-America candidate and is currently ranked in the NCAA top-25 in nine different categories, including total RBI (2nd, 88), RBI per game (2nd, 1.57), slugging percentage (11th, .880), hits (14th, 71), home runs (14th, 18), doubles (15th, 17), batting average (20th, .428), home runs per game (20th, 0.32) and doubles per game (23rd, 0.30).
— Ranked 20th in the nation with a .428 batting average and fourth in the country with 77 hits, junior shortstop JC Clayton is on a 14-game hit streak with 30 total hits in the process. Clayton is also 21st in the country in runs scored and 27th in the nation in triples.

ONE OF A FEW
BYU is one of just 20 teams in the country to have played in each of the last eight NCAA Tournaments, tied with Arizona State and Texas for the 18th-longest streak in the nation. The Cougars and Louisiana-Lafayette are the only teams from mid-major conferences to have gone to eight straight.

NCAA TOURNEY UNDER EAKIN
Under Coach Gordon Eakin, the Cougars are 11-14 in NCAA Tournaments. BYU has reached the final day in five out of the eight Regionals Eakin has been the head coach.

START OFF RIGHT
BYU has won its first game of every NCAA Regional the team has competed in since 2007, a streak of five years in a row. Below is the Cougars’ all-time Regional records by day and game:
Thursday game 1: 6-2
Friday Winner’s Bracket game 2: 1-5
Loser’s Bracket game 2: 1-1
Loser’s Bracket game 3: 3-3
Saturday Championship game 3: 1-3
If Necessary game 4: 0-0

ON BASE OFTEN
Hits, walks, hit by pitch -- it doesn’t matter how the Cougars have reached base this season, but they’ve done it more often than almost any other team in BYU history. Two players, JC Clayton and Delaney Willard, have on base percentages that rank in the top-10 in the BYU individual rankings.
1) 2010    .416
2) 2012    .413
3) 2008    .402

WINNING WAYS
The cougars have kept on winning this year, compiling their eighth-straight 40 season with a chance to earn the most wins in program history:
Most Wins in a Season
2010    46
2005    45
2008    44
2012    43
2007    43
2006    43