SB selected to NCAA Division III National Championships

05/05/08

 Click here for the bracket in PDF.

Belton, TX - The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor softball team has been selected for an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III National Championships for the first time in school history. The Cru will be the #3 seed in the U.T.-Tyler Regional in Tyler this weekend and will open the tournament with a 12:00 PM game against #6 seed Chapman University (27-9) on Thursday, May 8th. The double elimination tournament runs through Sunday at the U.T.-Tyler Ballpark on the campus of U.T.-Tyler. Thursday's other first round games feature tournament host U.T.-Tyler (40-7) taking on University of La Verne (27-17) and defending national champion Linfield College (36-4) facing University of Redlands (34-5). American Southwest Conference champion Louisiana College (39-5) gets a first-round bye and will face the Linfield/Redlands winner in a winner's bracket game Thursday afternoon.

If UMHB wins its first round game, it will face the U.T.-Tyler/La Verne winner in a 2:00 PM second round game on Friday. If UMHB loses the first round game, it will play the U.T.-Tyler/La Verne loser in an elimination game at 12:00 PM on Friday.

"We are really excited about the opportunity to play in the national tournament," Cru head coach Kasey Blomquist. "I am so proud of our players and coaches and we look forward to the chance to go play against some of the best softball program's in the country."

The Cru is 32-9 overall this season and is making its first national tournament appearance. UMHB went 24-0 in ASC West Division play and became the first ASC team to go 24-0 in divisional play. The Cru won the ASC West Division for the second straight season and finished third at the ASC Championship Tournament last weekend in Irving. UMHB is one of 18 at-large teams selected to play in the tournament. The 59-team field also includes 36 automatic qualifiers and five independent selections.

In this bracket, Louisiana College won the ASC's automatic bid. UMHB and U.T.-Tyler are both at-large selections from the ASC, Linfield won the Northwest Conference's automatic bid, La Verne advanced with the Southern California Intercollegiate Conference's automatic bid and Chapman advanced as an independent.

Tickets for the regional are $8 per day and are good for each game that day. UMHB will also provide live Internet audio of each Cru softball game at the Regional through the UMHB athletic department web site. Just point your browser to http://www2.umhb.edu/sportsinfo/streaming/default.htm to tune in. U.T.-Tyler is also providing a tournament web site at http://www.umhb.edu/redirect/http://www.uttyler.edu/athletics/ncaa/.

The U.T.-Tyler regional is seeded #1 among the eight regional sites. That means the winner of the U.T.-Tyler regional will be the highest seeded team in the Division III Softball World Series. The Division III Softball World Series will be played May 16-20 at the James I. Moyer Sports Complex in Salem, Virginia.