Spartans Receive Bid To NCAA Softball Tournament

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The field of 64 teams was released for the 2009 NCAA II Softball Tournament as The University of Tampa received a bid to the South Regional. With two locations, the Spartans will open postseason play in Valdosta, Ga.

A total of eight teams were selected for the South Region tournament, as the new format for Division II has the regional broken into two, four-team double-elimination brackets playing at two different sites. The winners of each bracket will meet May 15-16, in a best-of-three series at the highest remaining seed. The "super regional" format has been used at the Division I level the last four years.

UT (27-12) will meet Gulf South Conference tournament champion Valdosta State University (54-6) in Friday's opening round. The teams will meet for the second time this season as VSU defeated the Spartans 10-5 on Feb. 22 at the Eckerd Tournament in Clearwater.

Joining UT in Valdosta is the host school (Valdosta State), Nova Southeastern and Florida Southern. Nova Southeastern will be making its first ever NCAA Tournament appearance after finishing third in the SSC standings. The Moccasins captured the SSC co-championship with Rollins.

The winner of each of the eight regional tournaments advances to the Division II National Tournament, May 21-25, in Salem, Virginia. The South Region winner is scheduled to play the Central Region winner in the first round on Thursday, May 21 at 6:00 p.m. Winona State (Minn.) and Metro State (Colo.) are the top seeds in that region.

2009 NCAA Division II South Region Schedule (game times TBA)
Friday, May 8
Game One: #2 Valdosta State (54-6) vs. #7 Tampa (27-12)
Game Two: #3 Florida Southern (42-13) vs. #6 Nova Southeastern (47-13)

Saturday, May 9
Game Three: Winner of Game One vs. Winner of Game Two
Game Four: Loser of Game One vs. Loser of Game Two
Game Five: Winner of Game Four vs. Loser of Game Three

Sunday, May 10
Game Six: Winner of Game Three vs. Winner of Game Five
Game Seven (if necessary): Winner of Game Six vs. Loser of Game Six