Louisville softball earns 13th straight NCAA Tournament bid

After earning an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, the Louisville softball team will travel to Columbia, Mo. to face Nebraska in the first round of the tournament on Thursday, May 19 at 5:30 p.m. (ET).   

Regional host Missouri (39-14, 14-10 SEC) earned the No. 15 overall seed and will play BYU (35-19, 12-3 West Coast) in the other first round game at 8:00 p.m. (ET). Both games will be shown on ESPN2.

The winner of the Columbia Regional will advance to a Super Regional to play the winner of the Ann Arbor Regional which features the overall No. 2 seed Michigan, Notre Dame, Valparaiso and Miami (Ohio).

The Cardinals are making their 13^th straight NCAA appearance after posting a 35-15 overall record and a 15-8 mark in ACC play to place second in the regular season. Louisville advanced to the semifinals of the 2016 ACC Tournament. This marks the second straight year the Cards will open NCAA regional play in Columbia, after playing there in 2015. Last season Louisville fell 1-0 to Kansas and 2-1 in eight innings to Indiana State.

Despite all their regular season success over the past decade and-a-half, U of L is still looking to advance out of regional play for the first time in program history.

Here's the full softball tournament bracket.