Monday, May 2, 2016

PORTLAND, Ore. – Central Washington awaits a meeting with Dixie State on Thursday in the NCAA Division II Softball West Regional Tournament. The brackets for the 64-team tournament was released this morning.

The Wildcats were awarded the region’s No. 2 seed, the highest regional seed in program history, after beating Western Oregon twice to win the GNAC Championships on Saturday and earn the conference automatic seed. Also the regular season champion, Central Washington enters the NCAA Tournament with a 38-14. Dixie State earned the No. 7 seed and enters the tournament with a 36-13-1 record.

The two teams will play at Azusa, Calif., on Thursday at 11 a.m. Azusa Pacific, the No. 3 seed, is the host school and will face No. 6 seed in the first round.

The winner of this bracket will advance to play the winner of the second West Region bracket in a super regional next weekend at a site to be determined. Humboldt State, the No. 1 seed in the region, will host the other regional and will feature No. 4 Chico State, No. 5 Cal Baptist and No. 8 Sonoma State.

The No. 1 seed in last weekend’s GNAC Championships, the Wildcats became the first team in the tournament’s four-year history to come back from a first round loss to win, capturing the title with a 9-3 victory in the tournament final. As a team, Central Washington boasts a GNAC-leading .342 batting average and 2.90 earned run average.

Central Washington claimed their first GNAC regular season championship since 2011 under first year head coach Mike Larabee. That was also the Wildcats’ last NCAA Tournament appearance where the fell with a 1-2 record.