The Ohio Northern softball team will face Case Western Reserve in the first round of the St. Mary's Regional on Thursday in the NCAA III Softball Tournament.
Times for the four-team, double elimination Regional in South Bend, Ind., will be announced on Tuesday.
No. 10-ranked tournament host Saint Mary's (Ind.) will face Mount Aloysius (Pa.) in the other first round contest on Thursday.
The Polar Bears (30-9 overall) earned the Ohio Athletic Conference's automatic bid to the NCAA III Championships by winning the OAC Tournament last weekend.
ONU senior Kirsten Lightel (Tallmadge) was named the Ohio Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year and the Northern coaching staff claimed Coaching Staff of the Years honors as the ONU softball team saw six athletes garner All-Conference honors for the 2018 season.
For the first time since the 2009 season, the Ohio Northern softball team has been crowned the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament Champions after defeating host and No. 1 seed Otterbein 3-2 on Saturday afternoon in the title game at the Otterbein Softball Field.
The Polar Bears (30-9 overall) become the first team since current head coach Jackie (Mangola) Price made the NCAA Tournament as a player and current assistant coach Tina (Mangola) Martinez made the NCAA Tournament as an assistant coach for ONU in 2012, to punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
Ohio Northern will be the No. 4 seed in the 2018 OAC Baseball Tournament May 10-12 at Otterbein.
The Polar Bears will play top-seeded host Otterbein in the first game on Thursday with second-seeded Marietta and third-seeded Baldwin Wallace meeting in the second opening round contest in the double-elimination tournament.
Game times will be announced soon.
Thursday's winners will face off in Game 2 on Friday with Thursday's losers following in an elimination game on Friday.
ADA - The Ada boys team finished a strong third out of 16 teams at the 57th annual Ada Invitational track meet on a sunny Saturday at War Memorial Stadium.
Van Wert swept both the boys and girls team titles. VW won the boys event with 95.5 points, followed by Spencerville (68) and Ada (66).
Ada junior Noah Mattson finished second in the shot put and third in the discus to pace the Bulldog boys. Ada sophomore Michael Crouse also took second in the 400 meters.
