The Canisius College softball team, the 2007 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament champions, will travel to Columbus, Ohio, to meet the No. 25-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes in the first round of the NCAA Division I Softball Championships, the NCAA announced earlier this afternoon on ESPNews. The trip to the NCAA Tournament will be the ninth in school history for the softball program and the Golden Griffins?™ fifth national postseason appearance in the last eight years.
Canisius (27-19, 12-4 MAAC) captured its 10th MAAC title in the last 15 years by defeating Marist College 2-0 in the MAAC Championship game Saturday in Stratford, Conn. The victory was the Griffs?™ seventh straight and improved the team to 16-4 in its last 20 contests. The win over Marist also allowed this year?™s Canisius team to become the first squad since 1997 to win both the MAAC regular season and tournament titles.
Canisius senior pitcher Courtney Piar was named the MAAC Tournament?™s Most Outstanding Player after she tossed a complete-game three-hitter in the championship final to help Canisius secure the victory. Piar, who was named the 2007 MAAC Pitcher of Year last week, went 1-0 with a 2.14 ERA in three appearances where she allowed six runs on 11 hits to go with 30 strikeouts in 19.2 innings of work. The games at Ohio State?™s Buckeye Field will be a homecoming of sorts for the senior hurler, who grew up in Mount Vernon, Ohio, which is 53 miles north of Columbus.
Ohio State, the 2007 Big Ten champions, enter the tournament with an overall mark of 38-16. The Buckeyes secured their first automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on Saturday by beating No. 6 Northwestern 2-1 in the Big Ten Championship game. Ohio State is making its fifth trip to the national postseason and starts the double-elimination event with a 19-0 record at home and a 24-4 mark in its 28 outings.
No. 15 Virginia Tech, which beat No. 16 Georgia Tech 2-0 Sunday in the Atlantic Coast Conference?™s title game, is the No. 16 seed in the 64-team field and will be the top seed in the Columbus Regional. The Hokies (48-14) will get the regional started Friday, May 18, at 5 p.m., when they face off against Cal State Fullerton (34-20). The Titans were 13-5 in the Big West Conference and earned an at-large bid into this year?™s tournament.
The Griffs fell to Ohio State 3-0 in eight innings in the only previous meeting between the two schools, which came March 7, 1999, at the UK Invitational in Lexington, Ky. Canisius has also faced Virginia Tech and Cal State Fullerton one time each, with the Blue and Gold coming up on the short end in both contests. The game against Ohio State will be Canisius?™ 22nd NCAA Tournament game in school history, with the Griffs holding a 4-17 record in the previous games.
Game time for the Canisius-Ohio State game is set for Friday, May 18, at 7:30 p.m., at Buckeye Field in Columbus, Ohio. The regional will continue May 19-20.