Arizona is the sixth seed in its NCAA Tournament quadrant and will play Marshall in its first game in the Durham Regional. Duke is the 12th overall national seed and will play Howard in their first game. Regionals are double elimination to advance to the Super Regionals held from Thursday, May 21, through Sunday, May 24, 2026.
Updated through Sunday, Duke is 12th in the Softball Ratings Percentage Index, Arizona is 20th, Marshall is 28th and Howard is 169th. The Blue Devils enter the NCAA Tournament with a 39-14 record, the Wildcats are 35-16, the Thundering Herd 37-17 and the Bison 28-17.
Duke finished second in the Atlantic Coast Conference during the regular season with a 20-4 record. Florida State won the regular season title with a 21-3 record and the ACC Tournament title. Virginia Tech beat Duke 5-0 in the ACC Tournament semifinals.
Marshall finished second in the Sun Belt Conference during the regular season with a 17-7 league record, two games behind Louisiana-Monroe. Coastal Carolina beat Marshall 6-0 in the Sun Belt Tournament quarterfinals.
Durham Regional
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📅 May 15-17
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Double champion
Howard won the regular season Mid-East Athletic Conference by three games with an 18-3 record and the tournament title with three consecutive run-rule victories by outscoring their opponents 35-8. The Bison are making their second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.
Jalen Adams will likely pitch game one for Arizona against Marshall. Marshall hits .279 as a team with 89 home runs. The Thundering Herd has a 3.06 team earned run average. Arizona has a .345 team batting average and 4.62 ERA.
Arizona will play on Friday at 11:30 AM Mountain Standard Time on ESPN+. The remainder of the schedule has not been announced. Duke and Howard will play on Friday at 9:00 AM MST. The winners and losers will play each other on Saturday.
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