Why Oklahoma State softball will or won't make a run in 2026 NCAA Tournament bracket

STILLWATER — After a one-year hiatus, the NCAA softball tournament is returning to Cowgirl Stadium. Seeded No. 13 overall in this year’s bracket , the Cowgirls host Stanford, Princeton and Eastern Illinois in the double-elimination Stillwater Regional, set to begin play Friday afternoon.

After making five consecutive Women’s College World Series appearances from 2019-24, OSU suffered an early exit at the Fayetteville Regional last year. Now back on the home field, the Cowgirls have WCWS dreams once again. But you can’t get to OKC if you don’t make it out of your regional, and this four-team bracket won’t be a cakewalk for the Cowgirls.

Let’s take a look at the reasons why OSU will or won’t have a successful postseason: More: How Karli Godwin's unexpected position change helped Oklahoma State softball's late surge Three reasons OSU softball can make a run in the NCAA Tournament Pitcher Ruby Meylan Honestly, she could be all three reasons. Her most recent appearance notwithstanding, Meylan has been as dominant as pitcher in the country over the last two months. She allowed more than two earned runs in just three of her last 20 appearances, and in one of those, she went 10 innings to beat Arizona.

She has a 1. 47 ERA over that span, which totals 119 ⅓ innings. And OSU is 18-2 in those games.