BATON ROUGE – Fresh off a runner-up finish at the 2010 SEC Tournament, the LSU softball team earned the No. 12 national seed in the 2010 NCAA Championships and will host a four-team regional against Texas A&M, Louisiana-Lafayette and McNeese State running from Friday to Sunday at Tiger Park.
LSU (44-14) will be making its 12th NCAA Regional appearance since reinstating softball in 1997. The Tigers have made a pair of Women’s College World Series trips in 2001 and 2004 along with NCAA Super Regionals runs during the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Ticket details will be released on Monday for all fans wishing to purchase tickets to the Baton Rouge Regional.
“We’re excited about the opportunity to get to host an excellent weekend of softball at Tiger Park,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “All four teams in this regional have great fan bases. The stands are going to be packed with the Cajuns, Cowgirls and Aggies in town. I think we’re battle-tested with the road we had to travel through a very tough SEC. It’s always good to be home because the Tigers play very well on Skip Bertman Drive.”
The Tigers received an at-large bid after finishing third in the SEC standings and joined a conference-high seven teams selected from the SEC. The Big 12 and Pac-10 conference also placed seven teams into the Field of 64.
The top sixteen teams were each seeded and 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 the following weekend. The Women’s College World Series, which begins June 3, will include the eight super regional winners.
All of LSU’s postseason games will be broadcasted live on ESPN 104.5 and The X 104.9 FM in the Baton Rouge area with Patrick Wright and Kent Lowe set to call all the action. Live stats also will be available in the Geaux Zone on LSUsports.net along with in-game updates via http://twitter.com/lsu_softball.
NCAA Baton Rouge Regional
Friday, May 21
Game 1: Texas A&M vs. UL-Lafayette – 3:30 p.m.
Game 2: No. 12 LSU vs. McNeese State – 6 p.m.
Saturday, May 22
Game 3: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner – Noon
Game 4: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser – 3 p.m.
Game 5: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 winner – 6 p.m.
Sunday, May 23
Game 6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner – 1 p.m.
Game 7: Rematch if necessary – 4 p.m.
2010 NCAA DIVISION I SOFTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
* Indicates host institution
Tuscaloosa Regional – May 21-23 at Tuscaloosa, Alabama
No. 1 seed Alabama* (48-9) vs. Alcorn St. (24-24)
Lipscomb (48-11) vs. UAB (36-20)
Stanford Regional – May 21-23 at Stanford, California
Stanford* (36-17) vs. Texas Tech (36-16)
UC Davis (26-27) vs. No. 16 seed Hawaii (44-13)
Columbia Regional – May 21-23 at Columbia, Missouri
No. 9 seed Missouri* (46-11) vs. Creighton (37-21)
DePaul (38-16) vs. Illinois (43-6)
Atlanta Regional – May 21-23 at Atlanta, Georgia
Oregon (33-19) vs. Auburn (30-24)
Jacksonville St. (30-17) vs. No. 8 seed Georgia Tech* (49-9)
Los Angeles Regional – May 21-23 at Los Angeles, California
No. 5 seed UCLA* (40-11) vs. St. Mary’s (CA) (30-21)
Fresno St. (39-19) vs. San Diego St. (33-14)
Baton Rouge Regional – May 21-23 at Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Texas A&M (42-14) vs. La.-Lafayette (42-16)
McNeese St. (38-25) vs. No. 12 seed LSU* (44-14)
Amherst Regional – May 21-23 at Amherst, Massachusetts
No. 13 seed Arizona St. (41-15) vs. Boston U. (34-20)
Long Island (37-16) vs. Massachusetts* (42-8-1)
Gainesville Regional – May 21-23 at Gainesville, Florida
UCF (35-21) vs. FIU (36-19)
Bethune-Cookman (32-22) vs. No. 4 seed Florida* (43-8)
Seattle Regional – May 21-23 at Seattle, Washington
No. 3 seed Washington* (45-6) vs. North Dakota St. (33-23)
Nebraska (29-27) vs. North Carolina (40-18)
College Park Regional – May 21-23 at College Park, Maryland
Fordham (47-10) vs. Maryland* (33-22)
Syracuse (32-24) vs. No. 14 seed Oklahoma (43-10)
Columbus Regional – May 21-23 at Columbus, Ohio
No. 11 seed California (41-17) vs. Bucknell (28-18-1)
Kentucky (31-25) vs. Ohio St.* (37-12)
Athens Regional – May 21-23 at Athens, Georgia
Florida St. (43-16) vs. Radford (36-15)
Elon (38-19) vs. No. 6 Georgia* (43-11)
Austin Regional – May 20-22 at Austin, Texas
No. 7 seed Texas* (42-13) vs. Iona (28-24)
East Carolina (42-16) vs. BYU (43-11)
Tucson Regional – May 21-23 at Tucson, Arizona
Oklahoma St. (43-14) vs. Hofstra (43-10)
Cornell (37-13) vs. No. 10 seed Arizona* (43-11)
Knoxville Regional – May 21-23 at Knoxville, Tennessee
No. 15 seed Tennessee* (42-13) vs. Ball St. (43-14)
Virginia (33-21) vs. Louisville (39-17)
Ann Arbor Regional – May 21-23 at Ann Arbor, Michigan
Notre Dame (45-10) vs. Illinois State (32-18)
Wright St. (30-28-1) vs. No. 2 seed Michigan* (46-6)