SAN ANTONIO (May 1, 2019) – Oklahoma Christian accomplished a major first this softball season, capturing a piece of a regular-season conference title for the first time in the program's 25-season history.

Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough to earn the Eagles the opportunity to host the Heartland Conference Championship tournament, so for the fourth straight year, they've traveled on Interstate 35 to south Texas to begin postseason play – and try to accomplish another program first.

OC (35-14), the No. 2 seed in the five-team, double-elimination tournament, will face third-seeded Rogers State (33-21) in a first-round game Thursday at 1:30 p.m. at The Park at St. Mary's. The tournament winner will advance to the NCAA Division II tournament, somewhere the Eagles never have been.

"We've got as good a chance as anybody," said OC coach Shanon Hays, newly minted as the Heartland's coach of the year. "I know we're taking almost a week off, but we've been playing pretty good. But that first game against Rogers will be tough. They have seen us a lot.

"The only way we approach it is to go win this game. We don't think about anything besides the inning we're playing in now and just go compete in this game. If you're thinking past anything, you're doing it wrong. You play to win that game."

The powerful Lone Star Conference (which OC will join for next season) probably will gobble up six of the eight spots in the Division II South Central Regional, leaving only one berth each for the region's other two leagues, the Heartland and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. That makes the Heartland tournament the only realistic path to the regional for any of the five teams in San Antonio.

The good news for OC is it has a 13-7 record against the other four teams in the field, including 4-1 vs. Rogers State, 3-2 vs. No. 4 seed Lubbock Christian (Texas) and 5-0 vs. No. 5 seed Texas A&M International. Among tournament teams, only top-seeded St. Mary's (Texas) – which shared the regular-season title with OC – has a winning record against the Eagles, going 4-1.

Lubbock Christian (29-17) will face Texas A&M International (24-30) at 11 a.m. Thursday, with the winner set to play St. Mary's (30-23) at 4 p.m. The loser of the LCU-TAMIU game will play the loser of the OC-Rogers State game in an elimination contest at 6:30 p.m.

The winner's bracket final will begin at noon Friday, followed by a pair of elimination games, with the championship round set to start at noon Saturday.

The OC-Rogers State game is a rematch of last year's tournament title game, won in 13 innings by the Hillcats. Having played five times in a 10-day stretch to end the regular season, the teams are beyond familiar with each other at this point.

Rogers State has a workhorse pitcher in Andrea Morales – who leads the Heartland in wins, strikeouts, ERA and innings pitched and the league's top slugger in Danelle Day, who has 17 home runs and 51 RBIs, best in both categories in the Heartland. The Hillcats' 59 home runs are far and away the most by an Heartland team.

OC, meanwhile, is a veteran team with six seniors who would like nothing more than to qualify for the NCAA tournament for the first time.

"Winning the last series at Rogers State (to end the regular season), I felt really good about that," Hays said. "Our offense looked good. We pitched it solid. Over the last couple of weeks, I've felt really good about things. I think we're in a good spot right now."

Tournament Central page: https://heartlandsports.org/tournaments/?id=86