INDIANAPOLIS - The NCAA announced the selections and brackets for the 2023 Division II Softball Championships on Monday morning, with Northwest Nazarene softball receiving the four-seed in the West Region and headed to Irvine, California.

The Nighthawks (36-15) earned the automatic bid from the GNAC after winning their second conference title in a row and third in the last five tournaments. 

For softball, the NCAA splits each regional into two pods, with the winner of each pod advancing to Super Regionals, a best-of-three series against each other the following week to determine the region champion.

NNU's pod is made up of the 1-seed Concordia University Irvine Golden Eagles, 5-seed Cal State San Bernardino Yotes, and 8-seed Biola Eagles. The Nighthawks will open regional play against San Bernardino in the four/five matchup on Thursday, May 12 at noon Pacific/1 PM Mountain. With the regional having a double-elimination format, regardless of a win or loss in that game NNU will play again on Friday.

The other pod in the West Region includes 2-seed Cal State Dominguez Hills, 3-seed Sonoma State, 6-seed Cal State San Marcos, and 7-seed Azusa Pacific. NNU is the only GNAC team to be selected for the regional, with four coming from the CCAA and three from the PacWest.

This marks the third year in a row and fourth time in the last five full seasons that NNU softball has advanced to the NCAA Regionals. In 2018, the Nighthawks made their inaugural appearance and went 0-2, falling to Chico State and UC San Diego. In 2021, NNU won their opening game at the regional over Central Washington before getting eliminated with losses to eventual national runner-up Biola and regional top seed Concordia (CA). Last season, the Nighthawks upset top-seeded Cal State San Marcos in the opening game before falling to Sonoma State and San Marcos.

More info, including live coverage links and ticketing options, will be posted as it becomes available. A full regionals preview will be posted on nnusports.com later this week.