TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Securing the automatic bid from the Atlantic Coast Conference for the third consecutive season, No. 6-ranked and 2016 ACC Champion Florida State will participate in the 2016 NCAA Softball Championship as a No. 8 national seed and will host an NCAA Regional on JoAnne Graf Field on May 20-22.
The Seminoles (48-8) will be joined in Tallahassee by USF (44-14), South Carolina (36-21) and Florida A&M (27-28).
“We are extremely excited to be a top eight seed,” said FSU head coach Lonni Alameda. “This team worked really hard this season and I am really proud for the girls in the program and all of the alumni and everyone who has helped build this program. Now it is time to get to work and go after what we need to this weekend.”
The Seminoles have faced a total of 15 teams in the 2016 NCAA Tournament field, including seven teams that earned conference tournament championships – Auburn, Minnesota, Tulsa, Cal State Fullerton, LIU Brooklyn, Florida A&M and Valparaiso. In 10 games against those teams, FSU posted a combined 9-1 record.
Meghan King’s perfect game against Tulsa on March 12 marks the seventh time since 2005 that a pitcher recorded a perfect game against a team that went on to win a conference tournament title.
The three-day regional in Tallahassee will be held on May 20-22 and will start with USF versus South Carolina at 12:00 p.m., followed by Florida State playing Florida A&M 30 minutes after the completion of the first game. The USF-South Carolina game will air on the SEC Network, while FSU-FAMU will be broadcast on ESPN3.
The double elimination regional will conclude on May 22 and the winner of the 2016 NCAA Tallahassee Regional will match up with the winner of the Lexington Regional in the NCAA Super Regional round on May 26-29. If Florida State wins its regional, it will host the Super Regionals.
It marks the 17th consecutive season that the Noles have reached the regional round and they are one of nine schools to make the NCAA tournament every year since 2000.
Tickets for the entire Tallahassee Regional will go on sale Monday morning, May 16. Prices for the full session passes are $20 for adults and $15 for youth and seniors. Single-game tickets for Friday’s games will go on sale Friday morning and will be $7 for adults and $5 for youth and seniors. Tickets can be ordered either on Seminoles.com or by calling 1-888-FSU-NOLE. The ticket office is located at Gate B on the west side of Doak Campbell Stadium and the office hours are Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. ET.
