| Tournament Central | LIU Brooklyn Tournament Notes |
BATON ROUGE, La. - After winning the program's 14th Northeast Conference Tournament title, the LIU Brooklyn softball team makes its way south to Bayou country for the Baton Rouge regional. The Blackbirds will take on No. 10 LSU in their first game of the three-day event on Friday, May 20 at 7:00 p.m. ET. The contest will be broadcast digitally on ESPN3 and SEC Network Plus.
EXTRA BASES
•The trip to NCAA Regionals will be the program's 10th, and first since the 2012 season.
•The Blackbirds earned the right to represent the NEC after earning three wins at last weekend's NEC Tournament in Brooklyn.
•Sophomore Erynn Sobieski, who was named NEC Tournament MVP, earned two wins and recorded the final out of a 3-2, championship-game victory over Robert Morris after the Colonials forced the "If" game with a 3-1 triumph earlier in the day.
•Senior Whitney West earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team after hitting .385 over the four games, while junior Kylie Mulholland was spectacular at third base and was also awarded all-tournament honors.
•LIU is 5-18 in previous NCAA Regionals it has competed in, including eight one-run losses. The Blackbirds advanced to the program's only regional final in 2010, defeating nationally-ranked UMass and Boston University in the four-team event that included Arizona State.
•LIU Brooklyn and LSU will be facing off against each other for the second time ever, with the first meeting coming in Baton Rouge in 2002. The Blackbirds played three games at LSU during that weekend, earning a victory over UAB and suffering a narrow one-run loss to Georgia Tech.
•Arizona State has faced the Blackbirds six times, winning all six matchups. The closest of those games came in 2010, when LIU had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the sixth trailing 3-2 but failed to push the tying run home in a 3-2 loss.
•LIU Brooklyn's roster is comprised of five seniors, five juniors, three sophomores and six freshmen. Ten of the 19 members of the team hail from California, including four of the five seniors.
•Head coach Roy Kortmann is in his 21st season at the helm of the LIU Brooklyn softball program, and won the 600th game of his career earlier this season at Mount St. Mary's.