INDIANAPOLIS (May 16, 2021) – For the first time in program history, Oklahoma Christian will enter the NCAA Division II softball tournament as a No. 1 seed.

OC learned that piece of good news Sunday night, just before the NCAA revealed the 48-team tournament bracket on ncaa.com. OC (37-7) will receive a first-round bye in the South Central Regional and will play either fourth-seeded Colorado Mesa or fifth-seeded Texas A&M-Commerce on Thursday at noon at TAMUC's John Cain Family Softball Complex.

TAMUC (28-16) will play Colorado Mesa (38-3) in the regional opener on Wednesday at noon.

The other three teams in the regional will be second-seeded West Texas A&M (33-10) – which knocked off the Eagles en route to the Lone Star Conference tournament title – along with third-seeded Angelo State (Texas) (33-12) and sixth-seeded Texas A&M-Kingsville (23-12). Every team in the regional but Colorado Mesa is from the rugged LSC.

The double-elimination tournament will run through Saturday. Here is a link to the bracket.

In most years, eight teams qualify for each of Division II's eight regional tournaments, with the top two seeds in each region automatically hosting four-team events and the survivors then meeting in a Super Regional playoff. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA reduced the size of each regional field in 2021 to six teams and predetermined the host site.

One thing that has remained the same is that the eight regional champions will advance to the Division II Softball Championship, set for May 27-31 at the Regency Athletic Complex in Denver.

"I'm very proud of these young ladies to be chosen as the No. 1 seed in what most would consider the top region in the country," OC coach Shanon Hays said. "It's cool to see all the hard work and time spent working culminate into us being in the position we are in now. We are very excited for this opportunity and we are preparing our best to be ready."

The only other time OC made the NCAA tournament field was in 2019, when the Eagles won the Heartland Conference tournament championship to earn automatic entry into the South Central Regional. The Eagles were seeded eighth (last) in the regional but knocked off two teams ranked in the top 11 in Division II (Colorado Mesa and West Texas A&M) en route to the regional championship round.

The other seven No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament were Kutztown (Pa.) in the Atlantic Region, 2019 national champion Augustana (S.D.) in the Central Region, Georgian Court (N.J.) in the East Region, Grand Valley State (Mich.) in the Midwest Region, Auburn-Montgomery (Ala.) in the South Region, North Georgia in the Southeast Region and Concordia-Irvine (Calif.) in the West Region.

OC played a three-game series in Las Vegas earlier this season against Concordia-Irvine, dropping two of the three games.

OC has a 12-4 record this season against top-25 opponents, including the three games against Concordia. Against teams in the South Central Regional, the Eagles have posted a 7-2 record in 2021, with regular-season sweeps of West Texas A&M, Texas A&M-Commerce and Angelo State and a split against Texas A&M-Kingsville before the LSC tournament loss to WT.