Ah, another trip to Florida for the Lee University softball team. And more games against Gulf South Conference teams.
But a trip to Salem, Va., is at stake now for the Lady Flames, who challenge South Region No. 1-ranked West Florida at 5 p.m. EDT Thursday and 2:30 p.m. Friday in Pensacola. If they split those two games, there will be a deciding game Friday for the spot in the eight-team NCAA Division II national tournament May 25-29.
Lee (36-18) is in a super regional in only its second season of NCAA postseason eligibility, and Lady Flames coach Emily Russell – whose teams were frequent participants in NAIA nationals before the Cleveland school made the membership move – doesn’t mind that they’re having to visit the Argonauts (43-13) less than three weeks after losing three games at UWF the last weekend of the regular season.
“I’m excited to play them,” Russell said Monday night. “We didn’t play well the last couple of series (in the regular season). We made some errors and were not hitting well. We’ve seen them playing well and now we’re playing well again, and I feel like it will be a much different trip.”
After that visit to Pensacola, the Lady Flames went to Huntsville for the GSC tournament and then to Saint Leo, Fla., in the Tampa area and won the South Region 2 tournament last weekend while West Florida was winning the South 1 in Pensacola.