MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- It's Florida. With members of the Alabama State softball team watching from the ASU Football Stadium's club lounge, the Lady Hornets learned where their next path would take them in the NCAA Softball Tournament.
The NCAA Selection Show revealed that the Alabama State softball team will be headed to the NCAA Regional Tournament in a four-team grouping in Gainesville starting Friday with a match up against the nation's two-time defending champions and overall No. 1 seed Gators at 2:30 ET/1:30 CT.
The game will air on the SEC Network.
Joining ASU and Florida will be two other teams from the Sunshine State: Central Florida and Florida Atlantic.
ASU was one of five teams from the state of Alabama to make the tournament.
The others were No. 4 Auburn, No. 6 Alabama, Jacksonville State and Samford.
Alabama State is one of five teams, who will be making their first appearance in the tournament joining Butler, Samford, Ole Miss and CSU Bakersfield.
"We're just really excited about seeing our name flash up on the screen after playing a great weekend of softball in the tournament, ASU head coach Chris Steiner-Wilcoxson told WSFA sports reporter Maria Martin.
The 64-team field was selected from 283 NCAA Division I institutions sponsoring the sport of softball.
Of the 64 teams, 32 teams received automatic qualification while the remaining best 32 teams were selected on an at-large basis. Sixteen teams were seeded and each of the seeded teams earned the right to host at one of the regional sites.
At each campus site, a four-team, double-elimination tournament will be conducted and the 16 winning teams will advance to the Super Regionals.
The Lady Hornets made school history after winning its first SWAC softball championship by defeating Texas Southern 18-8 in the SWAC Championship on Saturday in Irondale.
It was the most runs that ASU had scored in a game since March 8, 2008 when it put up 18 runs against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Alabama State (28-25) pounded out a SWAC Championship game record 19 hits and had an unforgettable second inning in which the team sent 14 batters to the plate as part of a nine-run inning.
COURTESY ALABAMA STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS MEDIA RELATIONS
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