BEVERLY, Mass. – Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Softball Tournament Champion Endicott (32-5, 16-0 CCC) will travel to Union, N.J. to face off against No. 13 Kean (37-6, 14-4 NJAC) in the first round of double-elimination regional hosted by the Cougars. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m on Friday, May 10.
The Gulls are part of a 62-team tournament field which was announced Monday afternoon during the NCAA.com Selection Show.
Endicott was one of 42 teams to receive its tournament berth by virtue of a conference automatic qualifier. The top-seeded Gulls dropped a game early in the double-elimination CCC Tournament but were able to battle back through the loser's bracket defeating No. 2 seed University of New England twice in the championship round. This will be Endicott's first NCAA appearance since 2015 when it was a regional finalist at the Williamstown Regional.
The nationally-ranked Cougars were one of 18 teams to earn a "Pool C" at-large bid into the tournament. Kean had reached the championship round of the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Tournament before the remaining games had to be canceled due to weather.
The other two teams that will be playing in the four-team pod are Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) automatic qualifier No. 9 Christopher Newport (33-7, 9-3 CAC) and City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) AQ recipient the College of Staten Island (18-15, 10-2 CUNYAC). They will play each other on the open day of the tournament at 4:30 p.m.
Kean is one of 16 regional sites hosting games this weekend. The team advancing from each regional will compete in the super regional round May 17 and 18. The finals, hosted by Texas-Tyler, will be held May 23-28 at Suddenlink Field in Tyler, Texas. All rounds will use a double-elimination format
(Portions of this release courtesy of NCAA.com / CCC Communications Office)
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(Photo Credit - David Le '10)