Spring Sports Round-Up . . .

The Delta Devils were beaten 8-0 by region top-seed UCLA, before getting victories over Missouri (4-3) and Cornell (6-0), the first wins ever for a SWAC team in NCAA softball tournament play.

"It can be done! We are letting everyone know that we play great softball at MVSU and that we can play on a national level," stated MVSU Head Coach Lee Smith after the two wins. "We're not just trying to win a conference championship, but we want to compete on a national level and win on a national level."

Natasha McFadden's three-run homer in the bottom of the 6th inning lifted the MVSU ladies to their historic win over Missouri, eliminating the Lady Tigers.

They followed that up with the victory over Cornell as Tonya Johns and Nakelya Morgan both had two hits and two RBI.

Long Beach State erupted for five runs with two outs in the top of the seventh inning to knock out the Delta Devilettes in Saturday's semifinals.

During the tournament, MVSU became the first SWAC team to ever win a game in the NCAA Softball tournament and later became the first SWAC team in any sport to win multiple games in an NCAA tourney.

The Delta Devilettes end their season at 33-17.

B-CC hangs tough
It took two hard-fought close contests to knock Mid Eastern Athletic Conference softball champion Bethune-Cookman out of the 2004 NCAA double-elimination Softball Regional in Tallahassee, Fl.

The Lady Wildcats gave up only three runs in two losses but were not able to push across any of their own in dropping decisions to Oregon and Ohio State.

Oregon scored the only run in the bottom of the second inning but it was enough for a 1-0 victory over B-CC Thursday.

It took extra innings for Ohio State to subdue the Lady Wildcats as they scored two runs in the bottom of the tenth inning to eliminate B-CC, 2-0.

B-CC ended its season with a 44-28 record.

MEAC Track Qualifiers
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) will have 81 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship qualifiers competing in the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field East Regional Championships held May 28-29 at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fl.

MEAC qualifiers will be competing for spots in the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Nationals held June 9-12 in Austin, Texas.

North Carolina A&T's men and women track programs lead the MEAC with 15 total qualifiers. Florida A&M, the men's 2004 MEAC Outdoor Track & Field co-Champions, tied in second with Hampton with 12 total student-athlete qualifiers apiece.

Spring Destinations
The Southwestern Athletic Conference is holding its annual Spring Business Meeting in Biloxi, Ms., this week while the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference meets in Raleigh and the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference convenes in Las Vegas.

All three conferences are bringing in administrators, coaches and office personnel to review performances over the past year and formulate policies, procedures and strategies for the future.

© 2004 Azeez Communications, Inc.

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