Salukis advance to NCAA Tournament
05/12/2019 | 10:26:00 | Softball
SIU will make its 12th all-time NCAA Tournament appearance and will take on the Louisville Cardinals in the opening round of the Evanston Regional.
CARBONDALE, Ill. --Â For the 12th time in program history, the Southern Illinois University softball team is going dancing. The Salukis were chosen as an at-large selection for the 2019 NCAA Tournament.
SIU was one of the "last four in" to the field of 64 teams, and was the final at-large announced on Sunday's NCAA Selection Show. The Salukis gathered at head coach Kerri Blaylock's house to watch as a team, their season hanging in the balance as each Regional foursome was announced.Â
"The mood in the room was complete anxiety," Blaylock said. "We were all tense. The girls kept looking to me for insights as each regional was announced. I kind of knew there was one more spot left and when the Evanston Regional popped up I knew that we had a chance. "Â
The Salukis will take on the Louisville Cardinals on Friday, May 17 at 12 p.m. C.T. in Evanston, Ill. Louisville went 33-21 this season and lost to North Carolina in the ACC Championship quarterfinals but secured an at-large selection with a No. 36 RPI and 17 Top-100 wins, including five against top-25 teams.Â
Southern is 1-0 all-time against Louisville, as the Salukis defeated the Cardinals, 1-0 on March 4, 2000 in Kerri Blaylock's first season as head coach.
SIU will make its second NCAA Regional appearance in three years after a regular season in which it finished with a No. 42 RPI, tallied a Top-25 win (over Drake), three top-50 wins (San Jose State, North Dakota State, Mississippi State) and 12 total top-100 wins.Â
Defensively, the Salukis rank third nationally in fielding percentage and set a program record for fewest errors committed (25) in a single-season. Southern also set the school record for on-base percentage (.403), led the league in batting average for the first time since 2006 and posted 17 conference wins, tied for their most since 2005. Southern also reached the 30-win plateau for the 17th time in Blaylock's 20 seasons as head coach.Â
"Im really proud of these kids because of how hard they have worked," Blaylock said. "I have also received a text from every Valley coach and that means the world to me. To get two teams into the field shows that the MVC is respected on a national level again."
Drake earned the Missouri Valley Conference's automatic qualifier after it defeated Northern Iowa, 4-1 in the MVC Tournament Championship game. The Bulldogs were assigned to the Minnesota Regional where they will open against the Georgia Bulldogs.
Southern will be joined in the Evanston Regional by the 2019 Horizon League Champions, the Detroit Mercy Titans, and the hosts, the Northwestern Wildcats.
The Titans (31-26) are one of two first-timers in the 2019 NCAA Tournament field and will take on the Wildcats at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, May 17. Detroit Mercy won back-to-back Championship games over the No. 1 seeded UIC Flames to seal the league's automatic qualifier. The Wildcats, meanwhile, went 43-10 with the No. 11 RPI and advanced to the Big Ten Tournament semifinals before falling to No. 12 Minnesota.Â
It will mark the second time that SIU has played at a NCAA Regional in Evanston. Southern went to Evanston as an at-large in 2006 and defeated UC-Santa Barbara, 2-1 to win at least one game at the NCAA Tournament for the fourth-consecutive season.Â
Southern posted a 4-3 record against teams in the 2019 NCAA Tournament field with wins over Drake, North Dakota State, Mississippi State and SEMO.Â