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May 13, 2007
NOTRE DAME, Ind.- For the ninth consecutive season and 12th time overall, Notre Dame’s softball team (31-22, 13-7 BIG EAST) has earned a berth in the NCAA Softball Championships. The Irish are in the Evanston Regional and will square off with No. 22/21 Illinois State (42-15-1, 18-7-1 Missouri Valley). The game will be held in Evanston, Ill. on the campus of Northwestern on May 18 at noon (CT) at Sharon J. Drysdale Field. The other two teams selected for the Evanston site are host school No. 6/7 Northwestern (45-11) and Wright State (25-33). Ticket information for all games in Evanston will be announced shortly. The regional will be played in the double-elimination format on May 18-20. The top-16 teams in the tournament are seeded prior to the pairing announcement and Northwestern was seeded second.
“We couldn’t be more excited with our selection,” sixth-year Irish head coach Deanna Gumpf said. “The girls have worked so hard to come together and become a better team. We are thankful for our opportunity to make Notre Dame proud.”
Notre Dame finished fourth in the BIG EAST during the regular season, but battled and finished as the runner-up to Louisville in the BIG EAST Conference Tournament. The Irish are led offensively by first-team all-BIG EAST centerfielder Stephanie Brown (Chandler, Ariz./Corona del Sol). Brown led the conference with .432 batting average and an on-base percentage of .491. She also was among the league leaders with 40 runs, 67 hits and 13 stolen bases. Junior Katie Laing (Chandler, Ariz./Corona del Sol) was a second-team all-BIG EAST selection, while sophomore Beth Northway (Kentwood, Mich./East Kentwood) was a third-team choice.
On the circle, Brittney Bargar (Corona, Calif./Corona) is 22-13 with a 2.12 ERA and leads the Irish and the conference with 234 innings pitched and 224 strikeouts. Bargar for her outstanding efforts was a second-team selection during the regular season.
Illinois State, like the Irish, earned one of the 35 at-large bids to the NCAA Regionals. The Redbirds are led by freshman Kara Nelson who has 83 hits, 57 runs scored and 13 doubles this season.
Notre Dame is 4-1 all-time against Illinois-State, 6-10 against Northwestern and 4-0 against Wright State.
Notes: This is the third straight season that the Irish will be playing in a regional with Northwestern, as the teams locked up in the Notre Dame Regional in 2005 and the Evanston Regional in 2006 … the Irish were one of three teams from the BIG EAST Conference that were selected for the NCAA Tournament (DePaul is the No. 14 seed overall and will start play in the Carbondale Regional with Mississippi Valley; Louisville is in the Ann Arbor Regional and will start off against Oregon State)