May 16, 2010
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - For the ninth consecutive year and 21st overall, the No. 19 Texas A&M softball team earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament and will participate in the Baton Rouge Regional May 21-23.
The Aggies (42-14) captured an at-large big and travel to Baton Rouge, La., this weekend to face Louisiana-Lafayette (42-16) at 3:30 p.m. Friday. McNeese State (38-25) will take on the host and No. 12 seed LSU (44-14) following at 6 p.m.
The Ragin' Cajuns were an automatic qualifier from the Sun Belt Conference. The Cowgirls were also an automatic bid, from the Southland Conference, and the Tigers received an at-large bid from the Southeastern Conference.
The Big 12 Conference, the Pacific-10 Conference and the SEC led all conferences with seven teams in the championship.
The Division I softball championship provides for a field of 64 teams. Thirty conferences were awarded automatic qualification, and the remaining 34 slots were filled with at-large selections to complete the bracket. The top 16 teams were seeded nationally.
Team pairings were determined by geographical proximity, with the exception that teams from the same conference were not paired during regional competition, when possible.
The regional winners advance to super regional competition for a best-of-three series May 28-29 at eight campus sites. The remaining eight teams advance to the WCWS, an eight-team, double-elimination tournament. The championship final will be a best-of-three-series. The WCWS will be conducted June 3-9 at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.
All of Texas A&M's postseason games will be broadcast live on Sports Radio 1150 The Zone. More information on tickets will be announced later this week on AggieAthletics.com.
NCAA Baton Rouge Regional
Friday, May 21
Game 1: Texas A&M vs. La.-Lafayette - 3:30 p.m.
Game 2: No. 12 LSU vs. McNeese State - 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 22
Game 3: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner - 12:00 p.m.
Game 4: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser - 3:00 p.m.
Game 5: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 winner - 6:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 23
Game 6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner - 1:00 p.m.
Game 7: Rematch if necessary - 4:00 p.m.