Huskies Host Regionals To Start Postseason

SEATTLE - The Washington Huskies will host NCAA Regionals this weekend as the national 16-seed. Washington will host Michigan, Seattle U, and Portland State at Regionals. The Huskies first face Portland State on Friday in the double-elimination weekend tournament.

HOME SWEET HOME
Washington will host Regionals for the fifth straight season this weekend. The Huskies have hosted Regionals in 11 of Heather Tarr's 15 years as a head coach with postseason play. In that time, Washington is 30-0 in Regionals play in Seattle. The Huskies are 38-2 in postseason games played in Seattle under Tarr. Only twice in Washington history have the Huskies been eliminated from postseason play at home: in 1995 and 2002.

PAC-12 DEFENS-SIS PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Sis Bates earned her third consecutive Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year award. Bates joins Rosey Neil of Stanford as the only players in conference history to earn three Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year awards. Bates is the only player ever to earn the award solo three times: Neil shared the award with Arizona State's Mindy Cowles in 2008. Bates is the first Husky to earn three Player of the Year awards of any kind from the Pac-12: Kristen Rivera (Player of the Year) and Danielle Lawrie (Pitcher of the Year) are the only other Huskies to earn multiple POTY awards.

PLAINLY THE PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Gabbie Plain joined Danielle Lawrie (2009 & 2010) and Jennifer Spediacci (2000) as the only Huskies ever to earn Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year. Plain reached 300 strikeouts last weekend, joining Lawrie, Taran Alvelo, and Spediacci as the only Huskies with 300+ strikeouts in a season. Plain needs 16 more strikeouts to pass Spediacci for the fifth-most in a single season and the most by any non-Lawrie Husky ever. One more win would also make Plain the fifth Husky ever with a 30-win season, joining Lawrie, Spediacci, Alvelo, and Tia Bollinger.

ALL THE HONORS    
In all, the Huskies earned 11 year-end awards from the Pac-12. That was their most year-end awards since 2010, when Washington earned 13. Four Huskies earned All-Pac-12 First Team, the third straight year Washington has had four or more First Team awards and the 12th straight year Washington has had multiple First Team awards. Washington's three Pac-12 All-Freshman awards are tied with 2009 for the most in program history.

RBI QUEEN
Morganne Flores needs nine more RBI to tie Jaime Clark for the most in Washington history. Flores also needs just one more RBI to reach 50 on the year. This would be her third 50-RBI season in her career: she would be the fifth Husky ever to record three seasons of 50+ RBI and the first to do so since Kristen Rivera in 2005. In her Regionals career, Flores has hit .550 with eight runs, six extra-base hits, and 13 RBI in nine games.

IT'S GABBIE TIME
Gabbie Plain enters the postseason with a career 0.83 ERA and an 11-1 record in NCAA Tournament games. Plain has four shutouts in her seven career postseason starts, including a no-hitter against Mississippi State in the 2019 Regionals. In five career Regionals starts, Plain has allowed one run, with a 0.67 WHIP. Only one Regionals opponent has ever recorded more than three hits against Plain: Boise State, which had five hits in Plain's postseason debut as a freshman in 2018.

50/50
Baylee Klingler enters Regionals as the only player in the Pac-12 with 50 runs scored and 50 RBI. Klingler is the first Husky to reach that mark since Ali Aguilar in 2017. Only three times all year has Klingler gone multiple games in a row without scoring or driving in a run, with her longest streak her current four-game streak without a run or RBI.

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