Championship Central

Atlantic Region 1 (Lock Haven's) Bracket (games at No. 1 California (Pa.))

Atlantic Region 2 (games at No. 2 Shippensburg) Bracket

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LOCK HAVEN, Pa.  – The Lock Haven University softball team is set to make its third straight NCAA Tournament appearance as the Lady Eagles open Division II Atlantic Region 1 pool play on Friday, May 10 at California (Pa.) University.

Lock Haven will play a familiar face in its opening round game on Friday at 3:30 p.m. as the Lady Eagles take on West Chester. The two teams met in the PSAC Tournament opening-game last week. West Chester won, 4-1.

LHU is 28-14 overall and despite a 0-2 performance at the PSAC Tournament and a four-game losing skid to close the regular season, The Haven received the No. 5 seed.

West Chester, the No. 4 seed is 34-19 overall and the Golden Rams went 2-2 at last week's PSAC Tournament.

California (Pa.) was awarded the No. 1 overall seed from the Atlantic Region and will play host to Lock Haven, West Chester and Chowan in the Atlantic Region 1 bracket. Shippensburg, the No 2 seed will play host to Bloomsburg, West Virginia State and Kutztown in the Atlantic Region 2 bracket

Last year, Lock Haven went 3-2 at the NCAA Atlantic Region Tournament, dropping the Region 2 final to West Virginia Wesleyan, 1-0. LHU and the Bobcats locked up in a brilliant-pitcher's duel last year. With the win, W.Va. Wesleyan advanced to the Super-Regionals. It marks the second straight year the Bobcats eliminated Lock Haven from the NCAA Tournament.

Lock Haven's Sarah Morse (Dover, N.H/Dover) and WVW pitcher Hillary Perez-Ashley combined to baffle batters, yielding a combined 11 hits in game that lasted just one hour and 14 minutes. Morse scattered four hits and struck out five in seven innings of work. Perez-Ashley finished with 10 strikeouts.

This year, Lock Haven has been led by Bridgette Clarke (Bloomsburg, Pa./Central Columbia).

Clarke, a senior has been a tremendous plate-presence all season for LHU.  The senior is hitting a team-best .346 with 15 doubles and 19 RBIs. The speedster is also 6-for-7 on stolen base attempts. Earlier this season, she broke Lock Haven's all-time career record for doubles. Her 15 this season are one shy of tying the all-time LHU single-season record.

Nicole Smith (Milton, Pa./Milton) is another major offensive threat for Lock Haven. She's hitting .311 with a team-best seven home runs and 28 RBIs heading into NCAA play.

Not enough can be said about sophomore-transfer pitcher Brianna Jennings (Wyalusing, Pa./Wyalusing), who is 20-7 in the circle. She has 129 strikeouts, a 1.70 ERA and has held opponents to a .223 average.

Live stats and live audio will be available for the entire tournament. Audio is courtesy of ESPN Williamsport with Jonathan Schwab on the call.