The Mississippi Valley State Devilettes (28-26: five-time defending Southwestern Athletic Conference softball champions) will travel to Baton Rouge, La., to face on the ninth-ranked LSU Tigers (42-16: SEC at-large bid) in opening-round action of the 2008 NCAA Softball Tournament.
The double-elimination regional will be held May 16 & 18 at Tiger Park on the LSU campus. Also, featured in this regional are University of Louisiana-Lafayette (46-12: Sun Belt champions) and East Carolina University (36-28: Conference USA at-large bid).
The Devilettes captured the 2008 Southwestern Athletic Conference women’s softball tournament title as they defeated the Southern Lady Jaguars with a 6-3 victory in Game 11 of the tournament.
The Devilettes jumped out 4-0 in the third inning – a rally capped off by a series of singles and two fielding errors. Southern would get on the scoreboard in the fourth inning guided by an Aruba Nichols RBI hit.
The Devilettes would play “small ball†getting base hits, using effective base running and the sacrifice plays to score in both the fifth and sixth innings. Southern would get a run on a single by Jasmine Tillman, but could not overcome the deficit.
The win clinched the fifth consecutive title for the Devilettes.
The top sixteen teams were each seeded and placed at one of the regional sites. Four teams will participate at each of sixteen regional sites in a double-elimination tournament. The sixteen teams advancing from regional competition will participate in a two-team, best of three super regional at eight sites the following weekend. The Women’s College World Series, which begins May 28, will include the eight super regional winners.
Baton Rouge Regional – May 16-18 at Baton Rouge, Louisiana
*No. 9 seed LSU (42-16) vs. Mississippi Valley State (28-26)
East Carolina (36-28) vs. La.-Lafayette (46-12)
