KANSAS CITY, Mo. (May 3) – Regular-season champion Central Oklahoma will host Northwest Missouri in a best-of-three series this weekend in the first round of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Softball Championship.
The No. 13-ranked Bronchos captured their second straight league title – and the fourth since joining the league in 2013 – with a 21-5 record to earn the No. 1 seed for the eight-team conference tournament.
UCO, 32-10 on the season, will meet the eighth-seeded Bearcats (18-20) in a 5 p.m. doubleheader Friday. The "if necessary" game is set for 2 p.m. Saturday.
Other first-round pairings have No. 2 seed Central Missouri (31-11) hosting No. 7 Washburn (27-16), third-seeded Missouri Southern (28-13-1) entertaining No. 6 Missouri Western (27-17) and No. 4 seed Rogers State (30-13-1) hosting fifth-seeded Fort Hays State (24-20).
UCO is the pre-determined site for the four first-round winners, with that double-elimination event set for May 13-15. The MIAA tournament champion earns the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Division II national tournament.
