Mississippi Valley State faces a tough challenge in the first round of the NCAA regionals, but the Devilettes won’t be intimidated.
The fourth-seeded MVSU softball team will face host team and No. 1 seed South Alabama at 6 p.m. Friday in the NCAA regional in Mobile.
The Lady Jaguars (45-7) are the No. 13 overall seed in the field of 64 (16 four-team, double-elimination tournaments). They are 17-3 in games played at Jaguar Field this season.
“South Alabama is a very good team with two very good pitchers. We understand that, but our girls won’t be overwhelmed by the moment,” said Valley head coach Lee Smith, whose team is 25-30.
“We have played well against the bigger schools this year, losing 1-0 to Memphis and 1-0 to Mississippi State, and we played real well in a 8-5 loss to Alabama. Our girls can play with them.”
The other two teams in the regional are No. 2 seed Florida State (41-16) and No. 3 seed Mississippi State (32-22)
Friday’s winners will meet at noon Saturday, while Friday’s losers will face off at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in an elimination game.
The South Alabama regional is matched with the Austin Regional at the University of Texas, the No. 4 overall seed. The winners of the two regionals will meet in a super regional next weekend.
This is the eighth time Valley has played in the NCAA softball tournament, punching its ticket each time with a SWAC Tournament championship. The Devilettes rallied out of the losers bracket last weekend to claim their eighth league crown in the last 10 years under head coach Lee Smith.
The Devilettes hold a 3-16 record in regional play, with wins against Missouri and Cornell in 2004 and Chattanooga in 2009.
The Devilettes earned a spot in this year’s NCAA Tournament with five straight victories after a first-round loss in the SWAC Tournament.
“This team proved it has a lot of fight, battling their way back through the losers bracket to win another SWAC championship,” Smith said. “We’re down to just 13 players (from the original 16) due to injury, and we’ve got several girls playing through injuries right now.
“I am so proud of how hard these girls have battled. That makes this championship a really special one for me, putting it right up there with the first one in 2004.”
MVSU’s success this year has been fueled by the strong play of three seniors: Alexandria Robertson, Nicole Burr and Alicia Lorenz.
Robertson, a shortstop from Cedar Park, Texas, was named MVP of the SWAC Tournament. Burr and Lorenz were named to the all-tournament team.
Robertson leads her team in batting average (.387), doubles (22), home runs (13) and RBIs (49).
Burr, a catcher and third baseman from Monterey, Calif., ranks second for MVSU in batting average (.336), home runs (8) and RBIs (36).
Lorenz, a pitcher from Paradise, Calif., is 13-16 on the mound with a 2.56 ERA. She has 214 strikeouts and 82 walks in 2021/3 innings of work this season.
• Contact Bill Burrus at 581-7237 or bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com. Follow on Twitter:@Bill_Burrus.
