East Peoria, IL - The Illinois Central College softball team earned the #11 seed in this week's NJCAA Division II Softball Championship and will take on #6 seeded LSU-Eunice on Tuesday, May 24 at 4:00 pm CST at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama.
ICC, 33-18 overall, is riding a five-game winning streak after defeating Danville Area 17-2 in the Region 24 Championship Game back on May 9 in Danville. The Cougars are making their ninth Nationals' appearance in the past ten seasons and 10th appearance in the last 16 seasons.
Heather Doty's squad is led by All-Region selections
Kiersten Manning and
Sydnee Usherwood while getting contributions from a variety of players this season as
Alyssa Heerman,
Savanah Clifton, and
Alicia Casas were selected to the Region 24 All-Tourney team. Manning earned Tourney MVP honors as she tossed every pitch for the Cougars in their five tourney wins.
"With the time off between the Region Championship and Nationals we were able to get recharged, so that's been good," Doty said. "We also have classes and finals behind us, so we'll be able to focus solely on softball."
LSU Eunice is coming off a 9-2 loss to Northwest Mississippi in the Region 23 Championship on May 15. The Bengals are 34-20 this season and have won the NJCAA National Championship six times in program history, most recently in 2019. This will be the second meeting between the two teams, as ICC and LSUE met back in 2017.
Tuesday's ICC/LSU Eunice winner will play the winner of #3 Louisburg/#14 Oakland on Wednesday, May 25 at 4pm. The losers will play at 12pm on Wednesday, May 25.
The Cougars left Sunday morning for the eleven hour bus trip to Oxford. They will have official practice on Monday at noon, attend the Tourney Banquet on Monday evening, and also get to take a lap on the Talladega Race Track in the team bus.
LIVESTREAM
Access for viewing games is available through the NJCAA Digital Network through a variety of pay-per-view pricing options: Day Pass ($10), Tourney Pass ($25), or Championship Day Pass ($5) at https://www.njcaa.org/network/championships/sb-dii.
TOURNEY BRACKET
A complete tourney bracket can be found at: https://d2o2figo6ddd0g.cloudfront.net/r/i/havw6yruqhwymp/2022_DII_Softball_Championship_-_Bracket_v3.pdf.
FIRST ROUND MATCHUPS
#1 Des Moines Area CC (50-3) vs. #16 Potomac State (41-2)
#2 Phoenix College (47-6) vs. #15 Delaware Tech (31-3)
#3 Louisburg College (46-3) vs. #14 Oakland CC (33-17)
#4 Murray State College (45-9) vs. #13 Danville Area CC (43-13)
#5 Northwest Mississippi CC (35-13) vs. #12 Jackson CC (34-12)
#6 LSU Eunice (34-20) vs. #11 Illinois Central College (33-18)
#7 Kirkwood CC (44-15) vs. #10 Bryant & Stratton College (37-9)
#8 Triton College (49-7) vs. #9 Kansas City Kansas CC (43-14)
