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SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The No. 5 ranked Cal State San Marcos softball team will kick off play in the NAIA National Championships Friday in Columbus, Ga. with a matchup against No. 4 Oklahoma City in a rematch of last year's NAIA national semifinal game, where the Cougars fell in extra innings 1-0 on a walk-off homerun.

The 10-team tournament will be held at South Commons Softball Complex, with 19 games played during the seven-day span on the championship stadium field . The National Championship is a double-elimination tournament with the winner being crowned on May 30.

The winner of CSUSM-OCU will have Saturday and Sunday off.  The CSUSM-OCU victor will face the winner of No. 1 Concordia (Calif.) and the play-in game winner on Monday, May 27 at 1:00 p.m. PDT. No. 8 Reinhardt (Ga.) and No. 9 Saint Xavier (Ill.) will meet in the play-in game with the winner moving on to face Concordia.

The loser of CSUSM-OCU will face the loser of Reinhardt-Saint Xavier on Saturday, May 25 at 7:00 a.m. PDT in an elimination game.

CSUSM has finished each of the last three seasons ranked in the NAIA Top 5 under head coach Dave Williams, but is looking for their first national championship in program history.

The Schedule
Game 54
Friday, May 13 – 4:00 p.m. EST/ 1:00 p.m. PST
No. 5 Cal State San Marcos (43-10) vs. No. 4 Oklahoma City (50-13)
Columbus, Ga. – South Commons Softball Complex
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Game 55
If the Cougars win: Monday, May 27 – 4:00 p.m. EST/ 1:00 p.m. PST
If the Cougars lose: Saturday, May 25 – 10:00 a.m. EST/ 7:00 a.m. PST

The Matchup
Cal State San Marcos has had just one previous meeting with the Oklahoma City Stars, which was a heartbreaking 1-0 extra inning loss in the national semifinal game. The Stars finished as the national runner-up to Shorter (Ga.). The game was a hard fought pitching duel between a pair of first team All-American pitchers in Cortney Allen and Lily LaVelle, who led the NAIA in wins with 41 and struck out an NAIA best 540 batters in 313 innings.

However, while the Cougars will once again have Allen (34-5, 0.91 ERA)— the 2013 NAIA leader in wins— take the circle Friday against Oklahoma City, the Stars are without LaVelle this season, and will turn to either Jamie Rateliff (23-4, 2.13 ERA) or Elizabeth Oberst (15-4, 2.33 ERA).

The head coaching matchup is noteworthy as well, as two of the best in the NAIA square off in the national championships for the second time. Oklahoma City coach Phil McSpadden is the winningest coach in NAIA history, holding a career record of 1,369-341 and an NAIA best .801 winning percentage over 26 seasons.

CSUSM head coach Dave Williams is not far behind with the fourth most wins among active head coaches, boasting a 709-212 record, which is good for a .770 winning percentage— the second best in the NAIA.
 
 
Watch & Follow Live
The NAIA National Softball Championships will be broadcast LIVE by NeuLion. A single day video streaming pass is $9.95 and a tournament pass is $29.95. For more information, or to sign up, click here.

Fans can also follow along using live stats provided by Dakstats. To open a webcast, click the “W” for the game currently being played.

The Bracket
CSUSM is ranked fifth nationally and received the fifth seed in the ten team national championship bracket. Below is a chart of the ten remaining teams in the tournament, and their prior tournament history.

Oklahoma City (8) and Lubbock Christian (1) are the only two teams to have won a national title. CSUSM enters the weekend with the best tournament winning percentage (.750) among the teams that have played at least 10 tournament games.

NAIA Rank	Seed	School	Record	Champs Apps	Last App.	Champs Record	Nat.Titles
7	7	Auburn Montgomery (Ala.)	44-10	2nd	2012	7-2	--
5	5	Cal State San Marcos	43-10	4th	2012	15-5	--
1	1	Concordia (Calif.)	48-3	5th	2012	11-8	--
3	3	Lee (Tenn.)	47-9	8th	2012	15-12	--
2	2	Lubbock Christian (Texas)	58-8	6th	2012	21-8	1
4	4	Oklahoma City	50-13	28th	2012	113-41	8
8	8	Reinhardt (Ga.)	43-7	3rd	2012	5-5	--
10	9	Saint Xavier (Ill.)	49-7	6th	2009	11-10	--
15	10	Spring Hill (Ala.)	44-15	4th	2003	9-7	--
6	6	Williams Baptist (Ark.)	44-7	2nd	2012	6-2	--

 
How'd We Get Here?
The Cougars received an at-large berth to the NAIA Softball Opening Round by virtue of their No. 5 national ranking. The Cougars lost in both of their games at the Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) Conference Championships, but were the first team to receive an at-large berth. CSUSM has been ranked in the top-five nationally all season, and recently had seven players named to the A.I.I. All-Conference team, led by Conference Pitcher of the Year Cortney Allen.

In the opening round of the NAIA Tournament, the Cougars rolled to victories over Dickinson State (7-1), Park (5-2) and Marion (4-0) to sweep the Park Bracket and secure their berth to the National Championships.

NAIA Tournament History
CSUSM is 15-5 all-time in the NAIA Tournament, and has reached the national semifinals in each of the past two seasons. All five of the Cougar losses in the national championships have come in one-run games, including two extra-inning heartbreakers.
 
On the other end, the Cougars have shut out their opponent eight times in their 15 victories.

CSUSM Probable Lineup
1. LF – Kaitlin McGinley: Hitting .400 for the second straight season and is 42-for-42 on stolen bases this season.
2. DP – Brittney Guy: Hit safely in four of her last five games and has three steals over that span.
3. 1B – Alex Miller: Hit .888/.917/1.445 (8-for-9, three walks, 2 2B and a HR) in the opening round of NAIA Tournament.
4. 2B – Olivia Lucatuorto: Went 4-for-5 with three walks, 2B, and HR in last two games of NAIA opening round.
5. SS – Sarah Quiambao: Smacked two doubles in a three-hit game over Dickinson State last week.
6. RF – Patricia Banda: Leads the team with nine sacrifice bunts.
7. C – Tani Leasau: Clubbed a double and a homerun in the opening round, racking up three RBI.
8. 3B –Melyssa Bellamy: Has six multi-hit games on the season.
9. CF – Caylyn Rodriguez: Has scored or recorded an RBI in seven of her last nine games.
SP. – Cortney Allen: Struck out 31 batters over her last 30 innings, 3 career complete game shutouts in NAIA tournament.