Courtesy of Southeastern Oklahoma Athletics
DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern will open the NCAA Division II Championship Tournament with a 6:30 pm. matchup against Dixie State on May 22 in Salem, Va., at the James I. Moyer Sports Complex.
The Savage Storm will be making their first ever appearance in the National Finals, earning their trip after sweeping No. 23 Augustana on its home field, taking game one 13-12 before holding on for a 5-4 win in game two.
SE faces Dixie State which moved to the finals after posting an extra-inning come-from-behind win in game one over Cal State-Monterrey Bay, 6-4 in eight innings before taking game two 5-4.
The winner between the Savage Storm and the Red Storm advance to play the winner between Wayne State (Mich.) out of the Midwest Region and Valdosta State out of the South Region.
The finals tournament is a modified double elimination tournament with the eight teams actually split into two four-team double elimination tournaments, with the winners of each earning a spot in the winner take all championship game at 11 a.m. central time on May 26.
WSU and VSU will face off at 4 p.m. on May 22 before SE faces DSU at 6:30 p.m.
The other half of the bracket consists of former Lone Star Conference rival West Texas A&M who advanced out of the South Central region and LIU Post which won the East Region, with those two squaring off at 1:30 p.m. on May 22.
Armstrong Atlantic advanced by winning the Southeast Super Regional, and will play in the first game of the finals when it hosts the winner of the as yet undecided Atlantic Super Regional which will be decided on Sunday afternoon between West Virginia Wesleyan and West Chester.
Southeastern previously advanced to a super-regional in 2009 before falling to Angelo State, while in 2008 the team reached the championship game of the South Central Regional before falling twice to St. Edward’s.
The softball team becomes the third Southeastern team to advance to the National Finals, joining the 2000 baseball team which brought home the school’s only NCAA National Championship, and the 2002 women’s basketball team which finished runner-up.
The softball team is joined in the postseason this spring by golfer Marcos Sevilla Suarez who becomes the first golfer to reach the National Championship tournament.
