2021 NCAA Softball Tournament Seattle Regional preview, players to watch, predictions and more

Portland State hiked across state lines for the opening round of the 2021 NCAA Softball Tournament. 

The Portland State Vikings are an interesting team. Their body of work isn’t all that great and they happen to have more losses than wins. But, they swept right through their conference tournament and earned a bid into the NCAA tournament. At this point, the Vikings are playing with house money and they might was well see how far they can get.

Season overview

You generally won’t see many teams in the NCAA Softball Tournament with a record of 15-24, but that’s what we’ve got in the Portland State Vikings. The Vikings don’t even have a winning conference record, with a record of 8-10 against Big Sky opponents, but they charged right through the Big Sky Conference Tournament and now they’re headed to Seattle for the 2021 NCAA Softball Tournament.

Best wins

There aren’t many wins to choose from here, but the big wins that matter happened very recently. And those are the wins in the Big Sky Tournament that propelled the Vikings into the NCAA Softball Tournament.

• May 13 vs. University of Northern Colorado – 4-0
• May 15 vs. Southern Utah University – 8-1

Worst losses

We’ve got plenty to choose from here, but there’s a group of losses that really sticks out given who the Vikings will be facing in the 2021 Seattle Regional. A total of four losses came at the hands of Seattle University and the University of Washington. That doesn’t look good for Portland State’s chances here.

• March 12 vs. Seattle University – 3-5
• March 13 at University of Washington – 0-8
• March 13 vs. Seattle University – 4-10
• March 14 at University of Washington – 2-5

Players to watch

• Marissa Bruno – Bruno leads the Vikings in a few different categories and is a threat to take off and steal once she’s on base. She has a team-best batting average of .401 and leads her team with 19 stolen bases off of 21 attempts.
• Maddie Thompson – Thompson isn’t too far behind Bruno in hitting or stolen bases. She’s got a batting average of .320 and has stolen 15 bases on 16 attempts.
• Olivia Dean – Dean rounds out the trio of players who have stolen double-digit bases. So far she has a .357 batting average and has stolen 10 bases on 12 attempts.

Final thoughts

It might take a miracle for Portland State to keep up with Washington, Michigan, and Seattle University, but it took a miracle for Portland State to make it to the NCAA Softball Tournament. Anything can happen at this point.

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