The SUNY Oneonta softball team is set for its opening weekend of the NCAA Division III tournament at Ithaca College.  The Red Dragons will face Rowan University on Friday at 1pm.  The double elimination Northeast Regional will continue through Sunday with the winner advancing to the super regional next weekend versus the winner of the other Northeast Regional hosted by the University of Rochester.  The College World Series is scheduled for May 22-27 in Tyler, TX and will include the eight super regional winners.
 
Oneonta (29-9) earned the automatic berth into the NCAA tournament after winning the SUNYAC tournament this past weekend at home.  The Red Dragons ran straight through the double elimination bracket, culminating in a five-inning, 8-0 victory against rival SUNY Cortland in the championship game.  The SUNYAC title put an exclamation point on the greatest one season turnaround in program history.
 
"We are very excited about the opportunity to play in Regionals this weekend!!" said head coach Sara Headley.  "This season has been quite a ride so far and working with this team has been fantastic.  They are a great group of women who have worked extremely hard to get where they are today. We hope to pick up where we left off last weekend and represent SUNY Oneonta to the best of our ability."
 
Entering this weekend, Oneonta's one season improvement ranks second all-time in Division III history at +20 from 2013.  The Red Dragons last spring finished 8-28 and didn't even qualify for the SUNYAC tournament.
 
Oneonta will be making its fourth appearance all-time in the NCAA tournament and its first since 2004.  Previously, Oneonta participated in the 1999 and 2001 NCAA tournaments.  Oneonta has never advanced past the regional weekend in the old format of a larger regional and only on one weekend before the College Softball World Series.
 
In 2001, Oneonta fell in the regional championship game to Ithaca College, falling one game shy of reaching the CWS.  In 1999, Oneonta lost its first two games and was eliminated on the first day.  In 2004, they won their first two games before dropping its next two games including a 2-1 loss to host Ithaca in eight innings.
 
Oneonta enters this weekend winners of 13 of its last 14 games.  Oneonta's last loss was on Apr. 13, 5-3, in game 2 of its doubleheader against Brockport.  The 29 wins are the most since 1999 when the squad won 31 games.  The program record of 38 wins was set during the 2001 season, which included a program-record 21 consecutive wins.
 
Oneonta is hitting .313 as a team, which includes seven starters hitting over .300.  The team is fielding .964 and has turned 24 double plays.  The Red Dragons currently lead Division III in double plays per game at .63.  The pitching staff has a combined ERA of 2.15 and has held opponents to a .239 batting average against.
 
Individually, junior Brianna Rivera leads Oneonta in average (.372), hits (45), triples (4) and on-base percentage (.424).  Sophomore Traci Lichtenstein leads the team with five home runs and 42 runs batted in while slugging a team-best .557.  Freshman Marlene Cuevas (Wappingers Falls/Roy C. Ketcham) is hitting .345 in her rookie season while only striking out twice in 113 at-bats.
 
"Words can't describe the feeling of winning a SUNYAC championship this year and heading into regionals," said Rivera.  "To have such an amazing turnaround season from last year has been an incredible experience.  Everyone on this team shares the same goals and we have been working hard since day one to make it happen. We proved to everyone what hard work can accomplish and how when we focus on the same goals amazing things can happen."
 
The ace of the pitching staff this season has been freshman Sabrina DeAngelis (East Meadow/Kellenberg Memorial), who is currently 17-5 with a 1.63 ERA.  DeAngelis, who was selected as the Pitcher and Rookie of the Year in the SUNYAC, led the conference this spring in strikeouts and wins.  This spring she became only the third pitcher all-time to surpass 100 strikeouts and the first since 2004 when Amy Herba recorded 111.
 
"Making it to regionals as a freshman is an indescribable experience," stated DeAngelis.  "Being able to have a key role in assisting my team to make it this far is a privilege and really means a lot to me. But what makes this experience even more special is that every single one of us worked together as a team and family in order to achieve our goals."
 
Of the teams in the four-team, double elimination regional bracket for this weekend, Oneonta has faced only Ithaca and Rowan previously.  The Red Dragons have never faced Penn State-Altoona, who is matched against Ithaca in its first game.  Oneonta is 2-16 all-time versus Ithaca and is 0-1 versus Rowan.  Oneonta was scheduled to play Ithaca in a doubleheader in April, but it was canceled due to weather.  Oneonta has not faced Rowan since 2007, which was a 4-0 win for the Profs.
 
Scouting the Regional Teams
In the other first round game, host Ithaca College (24-12) meets Penn State-Altoona (29-9).  Ithaca won the NCAA Championship in 2002 and took fourth place twice.  The Bombers are in the national postseason for the 26th time.  Penn State Altoona is making its second consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament.  Both teams received automatic bids as conference champions.  Ithaca captured the Empire 8 title and the Lions were champions of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference. 
 
Rowan received an automatic bid as the champion of the New Jersey Athletic Conference.  This is the Profs' 22nd appearance and fourth straight in the NCAAs.  Rowan has advanced to the national finals four times and finished fourth in 1994 and 1993.
 
There are 62 teams that are competing in the NCAA Division III Softball Championship Tournament. There are 14 four team regional sites and two three-team regionals.  Forty-two conferences received automatic bids (Pool A) and one independent were selected for the championship from Pool B. The 19 remaining schools were selected on an at-large basis from the automatic qualifying conferences and the remaining independent institutions in Pool B.
 
Link to Regional website
http://bombers.ithaca.edu/sports/2014/5/5/SB_0505143308.aspx