ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (27-26, 13-15 NSIC) wrapped up the regular season this weekend and clinched a spot in the NSIC Tournament. The Golden Bears won five of their last six games to move up from eleventh to ninth in the conference, jumping Southwest Minnesota State and Bemidji State to set up an opening round matchup with eighth seeded Sioux Falls (24-24, 15-14 NSIC). CSP will take on the Cougars in Rochester, Minnesota at the RYFSA Complex on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m.

2023 TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
No. 7 Minot State and No. 10 Bemidji State join CSP and USF in the opening round games at 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, with the winners taking on one of the NSIC's top two teams, Augustana or Minnesota Duluth at 2:00 p.m. The teams that fall in of the opening round games will await the losers of first round games between No. 4 Minnesota State and No. 5 St. Cloud State, and the matchup between No.3 Winona State and No. 6 MSU Moorhead, Wednesday evening at 4:00 p.m.

The tournament will continue on Thursday and Friday with the NSIC Championship taking place Saturday, May 6 at noon. The winner of the NSIC Tournament earns the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Central Region Tournament. The 42-team NCAA Central Region is made up of teams from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) and the Great American Conference (GAC). Automatic bids are awarded to the tournament champions from each conference with the final five spots awarded on an at-large basis. 

Day ($20 adult, $10 student) and tournament ($40) passes will be available for purchases at the main gate of the complex while children under five years of age are free of charge. Gates open one hour prior to the first scheduled games of the day, with all spectators entering through the main entrance. Coolers are not permitted, and the concession stand will be available for cash-only purchases. Bleacher seating is available at each field, and spectators are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs to provide additional seating outside the outfield and along the left and right field lines.

TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Concordia-St. Paul has captured four NSIC Tournament championships, winning the titles in 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006, the most recent two with head coach Bob Bartel in his first two seasons. Concordia is tied for second in league history with four NSIC Tournament titles along with Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota State while Winona State holds the top spot with seven championships, most recently in 2018. Augustana is the defending 2023 tournament champion with Minnesota State capturing the 2021 title, the 2020 tournament was canceled due to COVID-19 and the 2019 tournament was carried by Augustana.

The Golden Bears are 38-27 all-time in the NSIC Tournament, dropping their first two games in the tournament for the past two seasons but winning their first game in the 2018 and 2019 tournaments, including a pair of wins over UMD and Augustana in 2018.

2022 NSIC TOURNAMENT
The Golden Bears had a disappointing NSIC Tournament run 2022, getting bounced out in two games after entering as the sixth seed After a strong start by CSP in game one against Winona State that included two five-run leads, the third seeded Warriors pulled off a six run comeback in the sixth inning to win 8-7. 

The loss knocked Concordia down to the losers bracket with a matchup against Sioux Falls. Similar to game one, the Bears jumped out to an early 5-1 lead in the first two innings highlighted by a two-run home run by Alexus Houston. The Cougars would respond with eight runs between the third and sixth innings while holding CSP to just one more run in the game to take the 9-6 victory to end the Golden Bears season.

LAST MEETING - April 4, 2023: CSP 3, USF 2 | USF 7, CSP 5
The Golden Bears and Cougars split their regular season series at the West St. Paul Dome in 2023. Sioux Falls got on the board in the top of the first, before Clara Heislen tied it up with a home run on the first pitch of the bottom of the inning. USF took back the lead in the second with their own lead-off home run to jump ahead 2-1. The Golden Bears brought things back to even in the bottom of the third, using a pair of ground-rule doubles by Alexus Houston and Jacey Defries. Defries drove in Houston again in the fifth on a sacrifice fly for the game winning run. 

Sioux Falls scored first again in the second game with a run in the first inning. The Golden Bears quickly took the lead for themselves in the bottom of the inning as Jacey Defries continued her perfect day at the plate with a two-run home run Two more in the second, including a home run by Avery Johnson gave CSP a 4-1. Similar to their 2022 tournament matchup, the Cougars would rally with six unanswered runs and limit the Bears to a single run in the final inning to take the 7-5 win.