2019 NCAA Division II Regional Softball Tournament Bracket
NCAA Division II Softball Tournament Digital Program
Dig up whatever history-repeating-itself cliché you'd like to apply here, but the Charger softball team has walked the path that lies in front of it once before in the past.
On May 5 of 2018 and 2019, the Chargers captured the Great Midwest Athletic Conference tournament championship. And now, just like in 2018, the 2019 Chargers earned the conference's automatic qualifying spot in the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional Tournament. And, just like last year, the team will travel to Allendale, Michigan as the No. 8 seed and will face No. 1-seeded and host Grand Valley State University in the first round.
The Chargers and Lakers will square off at noon Thursday in a first-round matchup. Depending on if Hillsdale wins or loses that game, it will play at either 11 a.m. or 1:30 p.m. Friday on the tournament's second day.
The link at the top of this release contains the entire 64-team bracket in this year's NCAA Division II Softball Tournament, with specifics of the Midwest Region schedule contained within.
The Midwest Region is split into two sites. GVSU hosts one half of the bracket that includes No. 8 Hillsdale, No. 4 and defending national champion Southern Indiana, and No. 5 Wayne State. The other half of the Midwest Regional will be played at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and features No. 2 UMSL, No. 3 Indianapolis, No. 6 Truman and No. 7 Illinois-Springfield. Five of the eight teams in this year's Midwest Region come from the GLVC. Wayne State and Grand Valley State are the GLIAC's representatives, while Hillsdale is the lone team in the regional from the G-MAC.
Each "split" regional will conduct its own double-elimination tournament. Those two winners will meet in a Super Regional in a best two-out-of-three matchup to determine who advances to the College World Series in Colorado May 23-27.
The No. 8 seed is a familiar, but comfortable spot for this team entering a postseason tournament. The Chargers got into the G-MAC Tournament also as the No. 8 seed, and for the second year in a row, proceeded to rip off four straight victories en route to hoisting the title trophy at the end. Hillsdale used a deep and versatile pitching staff and a hitting lineup with no weaknesses to navigate its way through the conference tournament. Hillsdale won two one-run games, one in 10 innings, and shut opposing teams down in the late innings to be crowned G-MAC champs for the second year in a row.
And, just like last year, the Chargers get a matchup with the Lakers of Grand Valley State in the first round of regionals. Last year, Hillsdale pulled off a 1-0 upset of the Lakers in their first-round game. Hillsdale would wind up getting eliminated from the regional last year thanks to losses to Southern Indiana and GVSU. While the 2018 Hillsdale team leaned on the strength of one lights-out pitcher, this year's team has seen four pitchers - Dana Weidinger, Camryn Olson, Natalie Walters and Julia Sayles - all contribute to the team's postseason success. They give first-year coach Kyle Gross plenty of options at any point in a given game. And all four of those pitchers have excelled, in both starting and relief roles.
Offensively, no holes exist in a lineup that sports a team batting average of .320 entering the regional. Twelve different players have a batting average of .300 or better, led by a .402 mark by Katie Kish and a .391 average from senior Jessica Taylor. While opposing teams have 25 home runs compared to Hillsdale's 13, the Chargers deliver death by a thousand cuts to those other teams. They have 86 doubles as a team compared to 59 for their opponents and have hit 9 triples while allowing only 2. Taylor, Sam Catron and Amanda Marra all have 14 or more doubles. Victoria Addis, Emma Johnson and Madison Stoner, who typically fill spots below fourth in the lineup, are all hitting .310 or better, making the "bottom half" of the lineup more potent than what most teams can deploy.
This is the third all-time appearance in the NCAA regional tournament for Hillsdale, adding to a list that includes 1991 and 2018.