Wisconsin softball: Big Ten Tournament bracket set

With the Big Ten softball regular season ending on Sunday the bracket for the postseason conference tournament is now finalized. The Wisconsin Badgers, losers of six straight games, are the No. 8 seed in the tournament and will take on No. 9 Minnesota on Wednesday afternoon.

The 23rd Big Ten Softball Tournament that will take place May 11-14 at Secchia Stadium on the campus of Michigan State and will feature the Northwestern Wildcats as the top seed. NU won their eighth regular season title in team history after going 39-9 and 19-4 in Big Ten play.

Here is the full schedule, with all games being aired live on Big Ten Network:

Wednesday, May 11 (First Round)

Game 1 (#7 Penn State vs. #10 Rutgers) – 10 a.m. CT (BTN)

Game 2 (#6 Ohio State vs. #11 Purdue) – 12:30 p.m. CT (BTN)

Game 3 (#8 Wisconsin vs. #9 Minnesota) – 3:30 p.m. CT (BTN)

Game 4 (#5 Maryland vs. #12 Michigan State) – 6 p.m. CT (BTN)

Thursday, May 12 (Quarterfinal)

Game 5 (#2 Nebraska vs. Game 1 winner) – 10 a.m. CT (BTN)

Game 6 (#3 Illinois vs. Game 2 winner) – 12:30 p.m. CT (BTN)

Game 7 (#1 Northwestern vs. Game 3 winner) – 3:30 p.m. CT (BTN)

Game 8 (#4 Michigan vs. Game 4 winner) – 6 p.m. CT (BTN)

Friday, May 13 (Semifinals)

Game 9 (Game 5 vs. Game 6 winner) – 1 p.m. CT (BTN)

Game 10 (Game 7 vs. Game 8 winner) – 4 p.m. CT (BTN)

Saturday, May 14 (Championship)

Game 11 (Game 9 vs. Game 10 winner) – 12 p.m. CT (BTN)

The Badgers and Gophers played a doubleheader in Minneapolis last week, which the Gophers swept, winning 1-0 and 4-2. I haven’t seen any of the updated Bracketology for the NCAA Tournament, but going 0-5 last week can’t be good for UW’s chances of going dancing. They’ll need to beat Minnesota and, most likely, upset top-seeded Northwestern to get back on the right side of the bubble I’d guess.