The Oregon Ducks are headed this week to their first Women’s College World Series since 2018, and know when they’ll be taking the field and who they’ll play in Oklahoma City.

Oregon, the 16th seed in the tournament, will face Big Ten rival and ninth-seeded UCLA at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Devon Park in the double-elimination series that starts May 29 and runs through June 5-6.

The Bruins (54-11), who defeated No. 8 South Carolina on its home field 5-0 Sunday, were 1-2 against the Ducks (53-8) in the teams’ one and only series, April 18-20, in Eugene.

Oregon won the first and third games, 3-1 and 9-0, respectively, and lost the middle game, 8-0, to the Bruins, who are making an NCAA record 33rd WCWS appearance. 

For the Ducks, it’s a seventh trip since 1989. Oregon also played in the 1976 and 1980 series when women’s collegiate sports were governed by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, or AIAW.

The Ducks have never made it to the WCWS championship finals.

The Bruins have also won the most NCAA softball titles with 12. It would be 13, but the Bruins’ 1995 title was vacated by the NCAA for scholarship violations. 

The Ducks players say they are ready to make a run at the school’s first-ever national title in softball.

“Yeah, it’s starting to feel real,” senior shortstop Paige Sinicki said Saturday at Jane Sanders Stadium after Oregon had routed the Liberty Flames, the tournament upstart that defeated No. 1 Texas A&M in the College Station Regional before heading to Eugene, 13-1, behind 14 hits and a three-hit game thrown by senior Lyndsey Grein. 

Here’s a look at the opening day schedule:

May 29 (all times PDT)

  • Game 1: No. 3 Florida vs. No. 6 Texas, 9 a.m. (ESPN)
  • Game 2: No. 2 Oklahoma vs. No. 7 Tennessee, 11:30 a.m. (ESPN)
  • Game 3: No. 12 Texas Tech vs. Ole Miss, 4 p.m. (ESPN2)
  • Game 4: No. 9 UCLA vs. No. 16 Oregon, 6:30 p.m.

While the softball team heads to the WCWS, the Oregon baseball team (42-14) will host one of 16 regionals in the NCAA Tournament starting Friday at PK Park in Eugene. 

Oregon will face Utah Valley at 6 p.m. while Arizona and Cal Poly will play in the other Eugene matchup earlier in the afternoon, at 1 p.m.

The Ducks are seeded No. 12 in the tournament.

Mark Baker has been a journalist for more than 25 years, including 14 at The Register-Guard in Eugene from 2002 to 2016, and most recently the sports editor at the Jackson Hole News & Guide in Jackson, Wyoming.