A few hours after arriving home from the Big Sky Conference tournament, the University of Northern Colorado softball team gathered Sunday evening to find out its next opponent.

Winning the conference tournament for the second straight year again earned the Bears a place in the 64- team NCAA Tournament. UNC players, coaches and staff hung out in a classroom in Butler-Hancock Athletic Center to watch the softball selection show on ESPN2.

The Bears (27-24) will soon be packing their bags for Stillwater, Oklahoma where they’ll be one of four teams in the regional hosted by tournament No. 5 seed Oklahoma State (44-10).

UNC plays Oklahoma State at 3:30 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time Friday (4:30 p.m. Central, according to Oklahoma State’s schedule) in the first game of the double-elimination regional round. Michigan and Kentucky are the other two teams in the Stillwater regional.

UNC played Michigan (41-16) twice in February during its non-conference schedule and lost both games to the Wolverines, 9-1 and 4-1.

“Everybody we play will be good,” UNC coach Dedeann Pendleton-Helm said of facing Oklahoma State. “It’s time to go to the show.”

There are 16 four-team regionals hosted by the national seeds throughout the country to start the tournament. The regional winners advance to the best-of-3 game super regionals. The final eight teams qualify for the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.

The regionals begin Friday. The super regionals are May 23-26. The Women’s College World Series starts May 30 with the finals June 5-7.

The @UNC_BearsSB team finding out it will play in Oklahoma State regional in NCAA Tournament this week. Bears will be with OKSU – the No. 5 overall seed – and Michigan and Kentucky. 🥎 Bears are 2-time defending @BigSkyConf champs. pic.twitter.com/LWnxbkDMYy

— Anne Giles Delaney (@AnneGDelaney) May 12, 2024

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Texas (47-7) is the No. 1 overall seed for the first time ahead of three-time defending WCWS champion Oklahoma (49-6). No. 2 Oklahoma defeated Texas for the Big 12 Conference Tournament title Saturday night. Texas won the Big 12 regular-season title.

Last year, UNC played at the University of Washington and faced the host Huskies in the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance. Washington beat UNC 10-2 in six innings. The Bears then lost to Minnesota 4-0.

Sixteen players on the team were also with the Bears a year ago. One of those is outfielder Alyssa Wenzel, who was a first-team Big Sky Conference selection last year.

A senior from California, Wenzel said she is retired after sustaining a back injury earlier this season. She remains with the team. Wenzel was at the Big Sky Tournament and she’ll also go to Oklahoma State.

Wenzel said the team used last year’s experience at NCAAs to their benefit this year. The emphasis this season was on improvement instead of saying they’ll win X number of games and win the conference tournament.

“Every practice, every game, every day, every lift, everything that we did all wanted to do was to be 1% better,” Wenzel said. “I think that got us to where we are now because we were focused on being better people and better players rather than looking for an overall goal.”

Wenzel and Pendleton-Helm said the team sees it can compete with programs from bigger schools and bigger conferences — such as Power 5 schools. The Bears played the final game of the regular season at Pac-12 member Oregon. Pendleton-Helm said the players competed against the Ducks with a calm confidence. The UNC players looked more comfortable and as if they belonged in Oregon’s bigger stadium.

Oregon won 9-2. The Ducks (28-19) are also in the NCAA Tournament, playing in the Norman, Oklahoma regional hosted by the Oklahoma.

“We won’t be as awestruck,” the coach said of what she expects from this year’s NCAA tournament appearance. “It’s how do we win and play our game?”

UNC arrived home in Greeley early Sunday afternoon from the Big Sky tournament in Pocatello, Idaho. The Bears played two games and 18 innings Saturday against Portland State before clinching the title about 7 p.m. The team bused to Wyoming overnight and finished the trip Sunday.

“It’s very exciting,” sophomore first baseman Amailee Morales said. “It’s fun to win back to back (conference titles), it’s fun to extend our season. We’re one of 64 teams left playing and we get to do that for our seniors.”

Morales hit a grand slam in the top of the 10th inning of the second and deciding game against Portland State to secure the tournament championship. Morales was 2-for-4 with two home runs, five RBI and two runs scored in the second game against the Vikings.

“It was electric,” she said of hitting the home run. “The atmosphere, our mood shift, everything. Hitting that lit a fire under us and let us go out and push three outs.”

UNC was the visiting team in the second game, which was played because Portland State beat the Bears 4-3 in eight innings in the first game of the day. After Morales’ home run, the Bears had to play defense with Portland State getting one more chance to hit in the bottom of the 10th.

Morales was named tournament most valuable player after being selected as conference co-player of the year earlier in the week with Sacramento State’s Lewa Day.

Morales’ home run came on a 3-ball and 1-strike count. She said didn’t know the pitch Portland State’s Allicitie Frost threw, but Morales was looking for a strike because the Vikings didn’t want to walk her.

“As soon as I swung, I was like oh, yeah,” she said. “I knew. It’s unreal feeling knowing you did that for your team and knowing that you just helped them to another championship.”

Morales’ grand slam was decisive, but there were multiple other reasons the Bears had a chance to win the game. One of those reasons was junior pitcher Isabelle DiNapoli, who came into the game in the third inning with UNC trailing 3-0.

DiNapoli pitched 7 2/3 innings in relief and controlled the Vikings, giving up only two runs on seven hits with six strikeouts. Pendleton-Helm said DiNapoli “came in and dealt,” throwing the ball hard while in control and hitting her spots. Pendleton-Helm called the performance “amazing” and “fantastic.”

DiNapoli is from Littleton and played at Chatfield High School.

She said she had full confidence in her teammates when she came into the game, knowing they “could definitely” come back from the three-run deficit.

“It was definitely a stressful situation,” DiNapoli added. “Between innings we kept reminding ourselves to breathe. I’d take a breath with my teammates on the mound, and we’d just like reminded each other of what we’ve been through and how much hard work we put in.”

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