AUBURN, Ala. – After being the lowest-seeded team to make the SEC Tournament semifinals last week, the Auburn Tigers will head to the University of Arizona for the Tuscon Regional.
The Tigers (37-19) will be the No. 2 seed in the regional and will face third-seeded Colorado State (38-10), which won the Mountain West Conference regular-season championship for just the second time in school history and will appear in the NCAA Tournament for only the third time in school history, on Friday, May 17 at 8 p.m. CT. The host Wildcats will face fourth-seeded Harvard at 10:30 p.m. CT on Friday, May 17.
"It's a great place to play softball," said Auburn head coach Mickey Dean. "I've been there many times and usually the one thing you don't have to worry about weather. It's going to be warm and the people there treat you extremely well. I think our players and our team will enjoy this trip."
2019 marks the second time the Auburn has played in Tuscon, Arizona for a NCAA Regional. In 2006, the Tigers lost to Ohio State, 1-0 in 10 innings, in the first game, then battled back to beat Marist, 14-0 in five innings, and then Ohio State, 4-0, to advance to the Regional championship game but fell to Arizona, 4-2.
"I feel like we really took our game to a new level last week," said Ashlee Swindle, one of two Auburn players (Morgan Podany) was named to the SEC All-Tournament team. "Seeing Lexie (Handley) have a great outing and seeing Chardonnay (Harris) pitch a shutout and me do well, I feel like that's good momentum going into the Regionals."
Auburn has a 3-4 all-time record against Arizona, including winning the 2016 Super Regional in Auburn against the Wildcats, and a 1-2 all-time record against Harvard. The Tigers have never faced Colorado State.
"It's great to see all your hard work start to pay off," said Justus Perry. "This team has really done a lot of work lately and I think we are playing our best ball right now."