The UMSL softball team celebrates during the GLVC Tournament last week. The Tritons won their fifth conference title in program history and will host a four-team tournament in the NCAA Midwest Regional round from Thursday through Saturday at the UMSL Softball Field.
Fresh off its Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament Championship, the University of Missouri-St. Louis softball team has been rewarded with the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Midwest Regional Tournament.
The Tritons will host one of two four-team brackets in the region and will take on seventh-seeded Illinois Springfield on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. at the UMSL Softball Field.
The Midwest Regional is double elimination and is broken up into a pair of four-team “sub-regional” brackets, which are hosted at separate sites. UMSL’s bracket also includes No. 3 seed Indianapolis and No. 6 seed Truman State, which will square off at noon Thursday.
“Every coach wants their team rolling at this time,” coach Amanda Scott said after the team learned of its NCAA seeding. “We’ve been fortunate enough to scrap a few along the way and gain that confidence. We took care of business when we needed to, and it’s nice to be rewarded, to get to play at home.”
The second-seeded Tritons host No. 7 seed Illinois Springfield at 2:30 p.m. Thursday to begin NCAA Tournament play. The winner of the UMSL sub-regional tournament will square off with the winner of the sub-regional hosted by Grand Valley State for a trip to the College World Series.
The other four-team bracket is at No. 1 seed Grand Valley State and features No. 4 seed Southern Indiana, No. 5 seed Wayne State (Michigan) and No. 8 seed Hillsdale.
The winners of the UMSL and Grand Valley State regionals will meet in the Midwest Super Regional round May 16-17. That will be a three-game series at a site to be determined. Each of the eight super regional winners across the country will then meet at the NCAA Division II College World Series held in Denver from May 23-27.
UMSL is making its seventh straight NCAA Tournament appearance and its ninth in program history. This also marks the fifth time in seven years that UMSL has hosted a regional.
“This year feels different because we’re on a roll, everyone is just so happy and we’re all, as a team, working together to get there,” senior Carly Kingery said. “It’s not just one person. Everyone’s contributing. It’s really awesome.”
Below is the listing of games for this weekend at the UMSL Softball Field. For more information on the UMSL regional, click here.
Thursday, May 9
Game 1 – No. 3 Indianapolis (45-14) vs. No. 6 Truman State (31-17), noon
Game 2 – No. 2 Missouri-St. Louis (35-17) vs. No. 7 Illinois Springfield (27-24), 2:30 p.m.
Friday, May 10
Game 3 – Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2, noon
Game 4 – Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2, 2:30 p.m.
Game 5 – Loser of Game 3 vs. Winner of Game 4, 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 11
Game 6 (Championship game) – Winner of Game 3 vs. Winner of Game 5, noon
Game 7 (Championship game, if necessary) – Same teams as above, 2:30 p.m.
All times listed are Central
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