May 13, 2007
FULLERTON, CA - The Cal State Fullerton softball team will be making its third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and the program's 23rd overall as the Titans are headed to Columbus, Ohio, for the 2007 NCAA Regionals hosted by Ohio State it was announced on Sunday afternoon.
The complete bracket is available here.
The Titans (34-20 overall, 13-5 in the Big West Conference for second place) are the No. 4 seed and will meet No. 16 national seed Virginia Tech (48-14) in their first game on Friday (May 18) at 3 p.m. Pacific time.
They will be joined by the host and No. 2 seeded Buckeyes (38-16) and No. 3 seed Canisius (27-19) in the four-team bracket that runs through Sunday (May 20).
The winner of the Columbus regional will meet the winner of the Tucson regional featuring defending national champion Arizona, Howard or North Carolina A&T, Pacific and Mississippi State in the super regional round.
It is only the third time in the 28-year history of the program that the Titans will travel outside the state of California for regional play, traveling to Seattle, Wash., in 1999 and Tucson, Ariz., in 2001.
Cal State Fullerton and Virginia Tech have never met in softball, while the Titans are 15-4 all-time against Ohio State (including a 5-4 win in eight innings at home earlier this season). Fullerton has won the only meeting with Canisus in the program's history, a 14-0 victory in five innings at the 1998 Kia Klassic.
The Titans are one of five Big West programs to get in to the tournament joining Pacific, Big West Conference champion Cal Poly (who meets host BYU in the first round in Provo, Utah), Cal State Northridge (who meets LSU in the first round at Palo Alto, Calif.), and UC Santa Barbara (which meets Hawaii in the first round at UCLA).
Fullerton is 52-43 all-time in NCAA Tournament play, 36-33 all-time in regional play, and 11-12 in the postseason under eighth-year head coach Michelle Gromacki. Last season, the Titans went 1-2 in regional play at Fresno, Calif., losing to host Fresno State and Stanford while defeating Tulsa.
Cal State Fullerton is 17-12 this season against teams in the NCAA Tournament field, including a 9-5 record against teams in its half of the bracket with wins over Oregon State, Hawaii, UC Santa Barbara, and Loyola Marymount.
COLUMBUS REGIONAL SCHEDULE
Friday:
Game 1: Virginia Tech vs. Cal State Fullerton - 3 p.m. PDT
Game 2: Ohio State vs. Canisius - 5:30 p.m. PDT
Saturday:
Game 3: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner - 11 a.m. PDT
Game 4: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser - 1:30 p.m. PDT
Game 5: Game 4 winner vs. Game 3 loser - 4 p.m. PDT
Sunday:
Game 6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner - 11 a.m. PDT
Game 7, if needed: Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser - 1:30 p.m. PDT