Wichita State softball left out of NCAA tournament field for 1st time since 2019

It turned out the Wichita State softball team did need to win the American Athletic Conference tournament to reach a fourth straight NCAA postseason.

Simply reaching the AAC tournament finals at Wilkins Stadium on Saturday was deemed not enough by the NCAA selection committee, which left the Shockers out of the 64-team field announced Sunday evening.

It will be the first NCAA postseason without the Shockers since 2019, as head coach Kristi Bredbenner has guided WSU to regional bids in 2016, 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

It was a mostly expected outcome for WSU, which entered the conference tournament on its home field knowing it was on the wrong side of the bubble. The Shockers held slim hopes after Friday’s quality, run-rule win over Florida Atlantic, who ended up in the NCAA field with a top-40 RPI, but WSU was among the first four out of the field according to the ESPN2 broadcast.

The Shockers increased the difficulty of their nonconference slate and the new additions to the AAC made the conference tougher this season, but a 2-9 record in one-run games ultimately haunted the Shockers in a 28-22 season.

WSU declined an invitation to the National Invitational Softball Championship, which was modeled after the WNIT in Division I women’s basketball. Due to insufficient interest in the event, the NISC announced Friday that it will not host a postseason tournament this year.

Sunday officially brought the end to the historic career of Addison Barnard, who joined Sydney McKinney as a supreme talent who etched their name in the NCAA history books and rewrote Shocker records. They also both played every game of their record-breaking careers as a Shocker.

Barnard recently hit six home runs in a three-day stretch in the AAC tournament, earning her the Most Outstanding Player award in a losing cause. She currently sits alone at No. 4 all-time in NCAA history with 93 career home runs and ranks top 10 in career slugging percentage (.873), while holding the single-season NCAA record for home runs per game (0.63).

She also holds the WSU single-season and career records in home runs, RBIs, total bases, slugging percentage and stolen bases. When teamed up, Barnard and McKinney led WSU to two regular-season AAC titles, a conference tournament title and a program-record three straight NCAA bids.

WSU will bid farewell to Barnard, Bailey Urban, Lainee Brown, Jessica Garcia, C.C. Wong, Lauren Howell and Madyson Espinosa, a group that consisted of five starters and a starting pitcher this season.

The Shockers should receive a boost next season with the healthy return of All-American hitter Lauren Lucas, who missed all of this season with an injury. The team is also slated to return a core of hitters Sami Hood, Taylor Sedlacek, Krystin Nelson, Caroline Tallent and Camryn Compton with Chloe Barber, Alex Aguilar and Alison Cooper all could be back in the circle.