Ithaca and Fisher Softball To Host NCAA Regionals May 13-15
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The Empire 8 Conference will be sending two of its members to the NCAA Division III Softball Championship, beginning May 13. Nationally-ranked Ithaca (32-8), winners of the Empire 8 Championship on Sunday, will serve as host for one of 16 regional pods in the NCAA Division III Softball Championship. Also, earning a nod by way of an at-large bid, were the St. John Fisher College Cardinals (33-10) who fell to the Bombers in the title game. The Cardinals, will also serve as a host in the 62-team field.
The Bombers, who enter the week ranked 16th-nationally, will take on Mount Saint Mary, which earned an automatic bid into the field after winning the Skyline Conference Championship. Moravian (35-4) and Worcester State (26-18-1) will duke it out in the regional's other contest. The games will begin on Friday, May 13 and will continue through the weekend.
Ithaca, fresh of its 10
th Empire 8 title, will be making its 27th appearance in the National Tournament having gone 71-54 over 125 games. Ithaca has advanced out of regional play on 10 different occasions having hoisted the national championship trophy in 2002. Head coach Dev Pallozzi's team last played for a national title in 2014 where it fell to Rowan in the regional final.
Fisher, guided by third year head coach Bari Mance, was selected to host a three-team regional. Fisher is the No. 1 seed and will square off against University of Rochester and Penn State-Behrend on Friday, Saturday and possibly Sunday.
This is the seventh time in the program's 33-year history that Fisher has advanced to the national tournament and the sixth time in the last nine years. Fisher's 33 wins are the fourth-highest total in program history.
Teams that advance out of regional play will compete in the super regional round which is scheduled to be played May 20-21. The World Series will be hosted by the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and is to be played in Salem, Virginia May 26-31 at the Moyer Sports Complex.
Ticket prices and game times will be announced at a later date