Oklahoma (38-16), which received the No. 9 national seed in the tournament, will square off against Iona (31-20) in the other Friday contest at Marita Hynes Field.
The host Sooners are coming off a fifth-place Big 12 Conference finish, ranking 13th in the latest edition of the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 poll. Oklahoma defeated the Bears twice in mid March at the Oklahoma Spring Festival in Norman.
Iona captured its second straight MAAC title Saturday after finishing fourth in the league's regular-season race. The Gaels and Bears have never previously met on the softball field.
Regional play continues through Sunday (May 22) with a double-elimination format. The 16 regional winners will advance to the Super Regional round, which will be contested May 26-29, with winners of the three-game, head-to-head series moving on to the 2011 Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City, June 2-8.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The Missouri St. men's baseball team used a five-run seventh inning and a pair of Brock Chaffin home runs to overcome a 3-0 deficit and defeat Bradley 7-4 Sunday afternoon at Hammons Field for the team’s first Missouri Valley Conference sweep of the season.
The Bears improved to 30-18 overall and 11-6 in the MVC and now control their own destiny for the league title with a visit to first-place Creighton next weekend to close the regular season. Bradley is 22-26 and 4-14 in MVC play.
Chaffin’s solo homer in the fourth went as the Bears’ first hit of the game and made it a 3-1 score that held until the seventh. The Bears loaded the bases with one out in the seventh, but were one strike away from ending the inning when Kevin Medrano roped a 1-2 pitch to right-center for a two-run single and Chaffin followed with a three-run shot to right to put the Bears up 6-3.
Bradley scored a run in the third and tacked on two unearned tallies in the fourth against Grant Gordon, who pitched four innings in the no decision. Pierce Johnson (6-4) relieved in the fifth and allowed two hits and an unearned run in the eighth against five strikeouts in four innings for the win.
The Bears answered BU’s eighth-inning run when Luke Voit hit a leadoff double in the bottom half, was sacrificed to third and scored on a Spiker Helms sacrifice fly.
Dan Kickham then retired the Braves in order in the ninth with two strikeouts, earning the save for the third consecutive game and tying Shaun Marcum’s school record of 13 saves for the season.
Missouri State closes the home schedule Tuesday at 5 p.m. against 24th-ranked Oklahoma State.
The Springfield Cardinals went to the dogs at Hammons Field on Sunday-in more ways than one.
On a day when fans were allowed to bring their pooches to the park, the Cardinals went to the dogs on-the-field as well, dropping a doubleheader to Northwest Arkansas to fall to 14-21 on the year, a season-low seven games below 500.
The Naturals used the long ball effectively in winning both seven inning games. Tim Smith's homer in game one carried Northwest Arkansas to a 3-0 victory. Game two saw Springfield take a 2-1 lead into the 6th, when the Naturals exploded for seven runs, four of 'em coming on a grand slam by Nick Van Stratten.
Springfield now heads south to North Little Rock where they'll begin a series with the Arkansas Travelers Monoday night at 7:05.
