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No. 10 Seed Softball Sent Packing for NCAA's

by LSUsports.net (@LSUsports)
NCAA Tournament Bracket +0
No. 10 Seed Softball Sent Packing for NCAA's

BATON ROUGE — Despite being ranked No. 5 and No. 6 in the national polls and winning the Southeastern Conference Tournament on Saturday, the LSU softball team was selected as the No. 10 national seed in the 2006 NCAA Championships and will be forced to travel for the four-team regional to face Cal State Northridge, Stanford and Fresno State in Palo Alto, Calif., from Thursday through Saturday.

The Tigers (52-10), who received the SEC’s automatic bid, will play Cal State Northridge (23-21-1), an at-large selection from the Big West Conference, in the first round of the double-elimination tournament on Thursday at 5 p.m. CT at Boyd and Jill Smith Family Stadium. All of LSU’s tournament games will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network in Baton Rouge on The X – 104.5/104.9 FM. The broadcasts can also be heard in the GeauxZone on LSUsports.net.

In other Palo Alto Regional action, Stanford (33-19-1), an at-large selection from the Pac 10 Conference, will face Fresno State (46-16), the automatic bid recipient from the Western Athletic Conference, on Thursday at 8 p.m. CT.

If the Tigers were to win their regional, they are paired against the winner of the Provo, Utah Regional and would likely travel to Tempe, Ariz., to face seventh-seeded Arizona State if the Sun Devils advance out of their regional. The winner of that Super Regional would advance to the Women’s College World Series.

Sixteen teams will be seeded and each of the seeded teams will be placed at one of the regional sites. Four teams will participate at each of sixteen regional sites in a double-elimination tournament. The sixteen teams advancing from regional competition will participate in a two-team, best of three super regional at eight sites on Friday, May 25 and Saturday, May 26. The Women’s College World Series, which begins May 31, will include the eight super regional winners.

Last season, LSU won the Baton Rouge Regional, going undefeated in three games to advance to its first NCAA Super Regional. The Tigers then traveled to Tucson, Ariz., to face No. 1 ranked and No. 2 seed Arizona in the best of three series. After falling in game one, LSU came back to win game two and send the series to three games. Unfortunately, the Tigers could not defeat the Wildcats a second time as Arizona went on to win the Super Regional and later win its seventh national title.

The Tigers were one of seven SEC schools that advanced to the NCAA Regional round, ranking just behind the Pac 10 for the most teams represented in the NCAA Tournament. Regular-season SEC champion Tennessee earned the fifth overall national seed, while Alabama earned the No. 11 national seed. In addition, Florida earned a No. 13 national seed, while Georgia, Mississippi State and South Carolina also earned berths in the tournament.

Palo Alto Regional
May 17-19 at Palo Alto, Calif.
All Times Central and subject to change

Thursday, May 17
Game 1: Cal St. Northridge (23-21) vs. (10) LSU (52-10), 5 p.m.
Game 2: Stanford (33-19-1) vs. Fresno State (46-16), 8 p.m.

Friday, May 18
Game 3: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 2 p.m.
Game 4: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 5 p.m.
Game 5: Loser Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 8 p.m.

Saturday, May 19
Game 6: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN2)
Game 7: (if nec.) Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 6, 10 p.m. (ESPN2)

NOTE: Game 7 played only if Winner of game 5 wins game 6.

DATES/SITES/PAIRINGS:
* Indicates host institution

Tucson Regional – May 18-20 at Tucson, Arizona
*No. 1 seed Arizona (39-12-1) vs. N.C. A&T/ Howard
Pacific (34-22) vs. Mississippi St. (34-25)

Columbus Regional – May 18-20 at Columbus, Ohio
*Ohio St. (38-16) vs. Canisius (27-19)
Cal St. Fullerton (34-20) vs. No. 16 seed Virginia Tech (47-14)

Ann Arbor Regional – May 18-20 at Ann Arbor, Michigan
*No. 9 seed Michigan (43-11) vs. Eastern Mich. (27-20)
Louisville (36-23) vs. Oregon St. (39-21)

Hempstead Regional – May 18-20 at Hempstead, New York
*Hofstra (40-13) vs. Harvard (31-13)
Albany (N.Y.) (33-15) vs. No. 8 seed Baylor (45-13)

Knoxville Regional – May 18-20 at Knoxville, Tennessee
No. 5 seed Tennessee (54-5) vs. Furman (21-34-1)
Winthrop (48-16) vs. North Carolina (45-19)

Los Angeles Regional – May 18-20 at Los Angeles, California
Hawaii (46-11) vs. UC Santa Barb. (30-21)
Loyola Marymount (45-16) vs. *No. 12 seed UCLA (36-16)

Gainesville Regional – May 18-20 at Gainesville, Florida
*No. 13 seed Florida (46-20) vs. Stetson (44-20)
Texas (33-18) vs. Georgia Tech (53-13)

College Station Regional – May 18-20 at College Station ,Texas
Houston (42-16) vs. La.- Lafayette (46-16)
Sam Houston St. (37-24) vs. *No. 4 seed Texas A&M (40-10)

Amherst Regional – May 18-20 at Amherst, Massachusetts
No. 3 seed Oklahoma (52-6) vs. Colgate (25-22)
Long Island (33-20) vs. *Massachusetts (37-12-1)

Carbondale Regional – May 18-20 at Carbondale, Illinois
Missouri (38-22) vs. *Southern Ill. (40-14)
Mississippi Valley (29-26) vs. No. 14 seed DePaul (41-11)

Tuscaloosa Regional – May 18-20 at Tuscaloosa, Alabama
*No. 11 seed Alabama (51-7) vs. Tennessee Tech (48-17)
California (33-30) vs. Florida St. (44-23)

Lincoln Regional – May 18-20 at Lincoln, Nebraska
*Nebraska (37-18) vs. Georgia (43-26)
Creighton (39-12-1) vs. No. 6 seed Washington (35-16)

Provo Regional – May 17-19 at Provo, Utah
No. 7 seed Arizona St. (49-15) vs. Southern Utah (29-29)
*Brigham Young (41-18) vs. Cal Poly (39-15)

Palo Alto Regional – May 17-19 at Palo Alto, California
*Stanford (33-19-1) vs. Fresno State (46-16)
Cal St. Northridge (23-21) vs. No. 10 seed LSU (52-10)

Columbia Regional – May 18-20 at Columbia, South Carolina
No. 15 seed North Carolina St. (41-19) vs. *South Carolina (34-23)
Penn St. (26-23) vs. Oregon (42-17)

Evanston Regional – May 18-20 at Evanston, Illinois
Illinois St. (42-15-1) vs. Notre Dame (31-22)
Wright St. (25-33) vs. *No. 2 seed Northwestern (45-11)

CHAMPIONSHIP STRUCTURE:

The Division I championship provides for a field of 64 teams. The championship will be three weekends of competition. Four teams will participate at each of 16 regional sites in a double-elimination tournament. Sixteen teams were seeded and placed at one of the regional sites.

The regional winners will advance to super regional competition for a best-of-three series May 25-26 (Memorial Day Weekend) at eight campus sites.

The remaining eight teams will advance to the WCWS, an eight-team, double-elimination tournament. The championship final will be a best-of-three-series. The WCWS will be conducted May 31 to June 6 at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.

SELECTION PROCESS:

The NCAA Division I Softball Committee selected teams from the following eight regions to participate in the championship: Central, East, Northeast, South, Mideast, Midwest, West and Pacific. Twenty-nine conferences have been granted automatic qualification for the 2007 championship.

SEEDING, SITES:

Teams were selected to the field of 64 teams. The top 16 teams were seeded in order, and the remaining teams were placed in regional brackets to create balanced competition and avoid conference match-ups, when possible.

CONFERENCES RECEIVING AUTOMATIC QUALIFICATION:

America East Conference ? Albany (N.Y.)
Atlantic Coast Conference ?Virginia Tech
Atlantic-10 Conference ? Massachusetts
Atlantic Sun Conference ? Stetson
Big East Conference ? Louisville
Big South Conference ?Winthrop
Big Ten Conference ? Ohio St.
Big 12 Conference ? Oklahoma
Big West Conference ? Cal Poly
Colonial Athletic Conference ? Hofstra
Conference USA Conference ? Houston
Horizon League Conference ? Wright St.
Ivy Group ? Harvard
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference ? Canisius
Mid-American Athletic Conference ? Eastern Mich.
Mid-Continent Conference ?Southern Utah
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference ? Winner of N.C. A&T /Howard
Missouri Valley Conference ? Creighton
Mountain West Conference ? Brigham Young
Northeast Conference ? Long Island
Ohio Valley Conference ? Tennessee Tech
Pacific Coast Softball Conference ? Loyola Marymount
Pacific-10 Conference ? Arizona
Patriot League Conference ? Colgate
Southeastern Conference ? LSU
Southern Conference ? Furman
Southland Conference ? Sam Houston St.
Southwestern Athletic Conference ? Mississippi Valley
Western Athletic Conference ? Fresno St.