2012 NCAA Bloomington, Ill. Regional Web Site

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan softball team has been tabbed as the top seed in the Bloomington, Ill., regional and will face St. Norbert at 10 a.m. Thursday (May 10) in the opening game of the NCAA Division III championships at IWU Field.

Illinois Wesleyan Softball Regional Media Information

The Titans, with a record of 36-6, earned the automatic bid from the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin after winning the league's tournament last weekend.
The Green Knights are 17-18 and are in as a result of taking the Midwest Conference tournament with a 2-1 eight-inning win over Carroll.
Illinois Wesleyan had wins of 10-2 (March 12) and 11-2 (March 15) over St. Norbert in the Rebel Spring Games spring trip earlier this year.

The eight-team Bloomington, Ill., regional features three teams from the latest national rankings - IWU is No. 8, defending national champion Linfield (Ore.) as the No. 2 seed, and No. 20 Carthage is the No. 3 seed.
Linfield has slugged 65 home runs with a team batting average of .349 and a team earned run average of 1.60.

The first day's schedule, with records and seeding:

10 a.m. - Illinois Wesleyan (36-6, No. 1 seed) vs. St. Norbert (17-18, No. 8 seed)
12 p.m. - Wisconsin-Eau Claire (32-12, No. 4 seed) vs. Fontbonne (27-10, No. 5 seed)
2 p.m. - Carthage (34-8, No. 3 seed) vs. Anderson (30-10, No. 6 seed)
4 p.m. - Linfield (38-5, No. 2 seed) vs. Benedictine (33-9, No. 7 seed)

Play will continue on Friday and Saturday with games again at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m. On Sunday there would be two games beginning at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. and the "if necessary" game would be Monday (May 14) at 10 a.m.

The NCAA selection committee announced the 61-team Division III playoff field Monday morning as part of a streamed internet selection show on NCAA.com. Thirty-five conferences were granted automatic qualification and six independents were selected for the 2012 championship. The 19 remaining teams were selected on an at-large basis from automatic qualifying conferences and the remaining independent institutions.
Six regional sites will have eight teams competing to advance while seven teams will compete at one regional site and six teams will compete at another regional site. All regional sites will use a double-elimination format.
The eight-team Division III championship finals will be held May 20-24 at Moyer Sports Complex, Salem, Va. Go here for IWU history in the NCAA Division III Tournament.