PHIL HICKS

phicks@tylerpaper.com

 

Many times in Division III, geography is a big part when the NCAA puts together national tournaments.

That came into play again this year as three softball regionals, including the Tyler Region, is laden with top 10 teams.

UT Tyler is hosting a four-team event at Suddenlink Field with three teams in the top 10 – No. 3 UT Tyler, No. 5 Texas Lutheran and No. 8 East Texas Baptist.

The Mount Berry Regional in Georgia sports three teams in the top 10 as well – No. 4 Berry (Georgia), No. 7 Birmingham-Southern (Alabama) and No. 9 Emory (Georgia). The Norfolk (Virginia) may not have three teams ranked, but they do sport No. 1 Virginia Wesleyan and No. 2 Salisbury (Maryland).

It is the sixth consecutive year the Patriots have played host to an NCAA regional. UT Tyler has won three of those regionals.

Joining the Patriots in the Tyler Regional are Texas Lutheran University, East Texas Baptist University and Agnes Scott College (Georgia).

The tournament is scheduled to begin Friday and continue through Sunday.

The Patriots (39-4) are making their ninth straight regional appearance and bring in a 25-9 all-time record in regional play. UT Tyler won last year’s regional tournament en route to its fourth trip to the College World Series in Salem, Virginia.

Also, the Patriots want to break the every other year of making the CWS, all of their previous appearances have been in odd years – 2009 (Montclair, New Jersey), 2011 (Salem), 2013 (Eau Claire, Wisconsin) and 2015 (Salem).

UT Tyler earned an at-large bid to this year’s tournament and will open the four-team regional at 4 p.m. on Friday against Agnes Scott (10-27), which earned an automatic bid to the regional by winning the Great South Athletic Conference tournament. The Scotties are appearing in their second NCAA tourney.

The first matchup of the day features No. 5 TLU (41-3) against No. 8 ETBU (34-8) at 1 p.m. on Friday.

ETBU is making its 10th regional appearance after winning the ASC Championship tournament while TLU is making its third trip after securing the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference bid.

Tickets are $7 (adults), $4 (students, senior citizens) and $3 (children 12 and under).

PATRIOT POINTS – The Patriots are 2-2 vs. ETBU this season. Coach Mike Reed’s squad is 2-0 vs. No. 4 Berry, 1-0 vs. No. 10 Christopher Newport (Virginia) and 1-0 vs. No. 18 Illinois Wesleyan. … ETBU, located in Marshall, is 1-0 against No. 7 Birmingham-Southern, No. 12 St. Thomas (Minnesota) and No. 16 Ithaca (New York). … TLU, located in Seguin, is 1-0 vs. No. 14 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (California). … Agnes Scott is located in Decatur, Georgia. The Scotties won the Great South Athletic Conference with a 3-0 record to earn the automatic berth. They were 0-2 against No. 9 Emory. … The winner of the Tyler Regional will face the winner of the Spokane, Washington Regional in the Super Regional, a best-of-three series next week. The Spokane Regional is being hosted by Whitworth (29-13). Others in the regional are Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (34-8-1), George Fox (30-14) (Oregon) and Linfield (29-13) (Oregon).

TWITTER: @PhilHicksETFS

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NCAA Division III Softball Tournament

Tyler Regional

Hosted by UT Tyler

Suddenlink Field, UT Tyler

Friday’s Games

Game 1: No. 2 Texas Lutheran (41-3) vs. No. 2 East Texas Baptist (34-8), 1 p.m.

Game 2: No. 1 UT Tyler (39-4) vs. No. 4 Agnes Scott (Georgia) (10-27), 4 p.m.

Saturday’s Games

Game 3: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 11 a.m.

Game 4: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 2 p.m.

Game 5: Winner Game 4 vs. Loser Game 3, 5 p.m.

Sunday’s Games

Game 6: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5, noon

Game 7: If necessary, 2:30 p.m.