BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- The No. 4 seeded Augustana Vikings softball team will begin their postseason journey on Thursday, May 11 when they take on the Carthage Firebirds in the opening round of the CCIW Tournament on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University.

The Vikings enter the conference tournament with a 20-18 overall record, finishing the conference slate with a 9-7 mark. Augie has won five of their last eight contests, but recently dropped two against the Illinois Wesleyan Titans on Saturday to close out their regular season. Augustana jumped out to a 3-0 lead in game one, seeing an opening-inning home run from Morgan Bielfeldt to make it 2-0 early on. Jennica Soliz added to the team's total the following inning with an RBI single to bring the score to 3-0. Both pitching staffs and defenses settled in for the next few innings as the 3-0 score stood still. The Titans scratched across their first two tallies in the bottom of the fifth to cut the Augie advantage to just one, following it up with a game-tying home run in the bottom of the sixth. After a three-up, three-down seventh from the Vikings, Illinois Wesleyan closed out the game with a walk-off two-run homer to steal the 5-3 win. The Titans took game two by a final of 8-0 to earn the sweep.

On Tuesday, the CCIW unveiled their all-conference teams for softball, naming Nadia Ranieri the league's pitcher of the year. Teammates Bielfeldt and Claudia Buchholz also earned All-CCIW honors.

Augustana's opponent on Thursday will the No. 5 seeded Firebirds, who enter the tournament with a 12-21-1 overall record and 7-9 mark in the CCIW. Carthage has lost four of their last five outings, including a sweep by Millikin last Wednesday to wrap up the regular season. The Firebirds dropped the opener by a score of 7-4 before falling 10-7 in the finale.

The Vikings hold a 36-40 record all-time against the Firebirds. The two teams split their regular-season meetings in Rock Island this season, with Augie winning game one by a score of 6-1 before dropping game two in 12 innings by a final of 2-1. Augustana has won two of the last three against Carthage.

Thursday's winner will take on No. 1 seed Illinois Wesleyan later in the day.

Admission Information (each day)
Adults - $10.00
Seniors, Students and Children ages 6-14 - $5.00
Children ages 5 and under - Free