Courtesy Bridgewater State Sports Information
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. - The NCAA Division III Softball Tournament selections were announced on Monday and the Bridgewater State College Bears are seeded sixth in the New England Regional hosted by Endicott College.
Bridgewater (28-9) will be making the program's 20th trip to the national tournament and tenth in the last 12 years.
The Bears received an automatic qualifier after capturing the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Tournament championship on Sunday with a 3-0 victory over Westfield State. BSC, the MASCAC regular season co-champions, went 3-0 during the conference tournament and is currently riding an 11-game winning streak.
Bridgewater will take on third-seeded Coast Guard in the tournament's opening round on Thursday at 2:00 PM. Coast Guard, who is also nicknamed the Bears, earned an at large selection after posting a record of 36-5-1. The Bears, who won a school-record 28 straight games earlier this season, became the first team to go unbeaten in the New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) regular season, posting a 15-0-1 record.
Tufts (37-1), the New England Small College Athletic Conference champion, is the top-seed, while Rhode Island College (40-5), the Little East champion, is seeded second. Fourth-seeded Endicott College (37-7), number five Emerson College (32-9), seventh-seeded Springfield College (20-22) and number eight Husson College (26-14) round out the eight-team regional.
Seven teams will compete at five first-round sites and eight teams will compete at three first-round sites for a total of eight first-round sites. All sites will use a double-elimination format.
The seven-team first rounds will be held May 7-10 on the campuses of competing institutions. The eight-team first rounds will be held May 7-11 on the campuses of competing institutions. The finals, hosted by Montclair State University, will be held May 15-19 at the Montclair State University Softball Stadium in Montclair, New Jersey.
Thirty-seven conferences received automatic qualification and five independents were selected for the 2009 championship. The 17 remaining teams were selected on an at-large basis from automatic qualifying conferences and the remaining independent institutions.