University of Southern Indiana Softball was awarded the No. 2 seed for this week’s NCAA Division II Midwest Region Tournament and the right to host one of the two four-team brackets in an announcement by the national office Monday morning.
The Midwest Regional will take place Thursday through Saturday at the USI Softball Field.
USI (41-12) will square off with the No. 7 seed, Grand Valley State University, in the opening round Thursday at 2:30 p.m., while the No. 3 seed, Saginaw Valley State University, will take on the No. 6 seed, the University of Indianapolis, Thursday at noon to begin the tournament.
The winner of the USI-GVSU bout will take on the winner of the SVSU-UIndy contest in game three of the tournament Friday at noon; while the losers of those contests will meet in an elimination game Friday at 2:30 p.m.
Three games are slated to take place Friday as the final contest will feature the loser of game three versus the winner of game four in another elimination contest.
The championship will take place Saturday at noon, while the “if necessary†game is Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
On the other side of the bracket, the top-seeded University of Missouri-St. Louis Tritons host the No. 8 seed, Kentucky Wesleyan College, Thursday in St. Louis; while the No. 5 seed, Truman State University, takes on the No. 4 seed, Wayne State University, in the opening round Thursday in St. Louis.
The winners of the two regionals will square off in a best-of-three Super-Regional May 18-19 at the highest seed.
USI, ranked No. 6 in last week’s national poll, is hosting an NCAA II regional tournament for the first time in program history. The Screaming Eagles, who are meeting Grand Valley State in the opening round for the third consecutive year, went a combined 6-2 against the Midwest Region field this year, including 3-1 against their sub-regional.
The Eagles defeated Grand Valley State to begin the 2015 NCAA II Midwest Region Tournament in St. Louis, but suffered a loss to the Lakers in the first round of the 2016 NCAA II Midwest Region Tournament in Indianapolis. USI defeated the Lakers, 5-0, at The Spring Games in March and swept a Great Lakes Valley Conference doubleheader from Indianapolis in April; but suffered a 4-3 setback to Saginaw Valley State in February.
