Utah To Represent MWC In The 2004 NCAA Softball Championship

The Utes earn an automatic bid for second time in three years

Utah will take on No. 8 Stanford in opening game on Thursday
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May 16, 2004

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Utah will represent the Mountain West Conference in the 2004 NCAA Softball Championship. The Utes earned the automatic bid to the championship for the second time in three years with their 3-0 win over San Diego State in the championship game of last weekend's Mountain West Conference Softball Championship in Fort Collins, Colo. This is Utah's 11th overall NCAA Tournament appearance and third as a member of the MWC. The Utes are 17-25 in the tournament, including a mark of 16-17 in regional games.

This is the second year for the 64-team bracket. Eight teams will participate at each of the eight regional sites in a double-elimination tournament. Eight teams will be seeded and each of the seeded teams will be placed at one of the regional sites. All regional games will be conducted May 20-23.

Utah is the No. 8 seed in the Region No. 7 tournament at Boyd & Jill Smith Family Stadium in Palo Alto, Calif., and will start off with top-seeded and No. 8 ranked Stanford at 5:30 p.m. PDT on Thursday, May 20. The other opening day games in Palo Alto will be 12th-ranked Auburn vs. Hofstra, No. 16 Fresno State vs. Southern Illinois and Pacific vs. Southern Mississippi.

The regional winners advance to the Women's College World Series (WCWS), an eight-team, double-elimination tournament. The WCWS will be conducted May 27-31 at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Okla.