Independent file photo SMSU’s Jillian Noel slides into home during their game against Wayne State on April 22. SMSU will start NSIC Tournament play on Thursday and face Northern State.

MARSHALL — The No. 7 seed Southwest Minnesota State University softball team (26-18) opens play at the 10-team Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament this Thursday taking on No. 10 seed Northern State University (22-18) in a first round match-up starting at 10 a.m. at the RYSFA Complex in Rochester.

•The winner of the double-elimination tournament receives the NSIC’s automatic bid to the six-team NCAA Central Region Tournament.

•If SMSU wins its opening round game, they would advance to the quarterfinals to take on No. 2 seed Minnesota State at 2 p.m.

•If SMSU loses its first game, they would fall to the losers’ bracket and play either No. 4 Minnesota Duluth or No. 5 Concordia-St. Paul.

•NSIC regular season champion, Augustana, is the tournament’s No. 1 seed.

Game coverage

•Live video and stats for the entire tournament will be available at SMSUmustangs.com.

SMSU at the

NSIC Tournament

•SMSU has won a pair of NSIC Tournament championships in 1998 and 2007.

•This is SMSU’s sixth straight tournament appearance. The Mustangs finished in fourth place in both 2018 and 2016.

•SMSU went 1-2 at the 2019 tournament opening with a win over Upper Iowa, before losing to Augustana and Minnesota Duluth.

About Northern State

•Northern State finished the regular season with a 22-18 record.

•The Wolves enter the tournament having lost six straight games with their last win on April 24.

•NSU is led by Kennady Thompson, who is batting .365 with 18 RBIs.

•Makenzie Merritt is hitting .337 with eight home runs and 34 RBIs.

•NSU is batting .310 and averaging 4.7 runs per game, while the pitching staff has a 3.72 ERA with 299 strikeouts in 256 innings.

Series history vs.

Northern State

•SMSU and NSU have meet 90 times since the 1986 season with SMSU leading 66-24.

•The teams split two doubleheaders this season. In a non-conference doubleheader on March 7, NSU won game one, 2-1, before SMSU won 11-3 in game two. The two clubs met in a conference twinbill on April 18 in Aberdeen, S.D., with SMSU taking game one, 10-7, before NSU earned a 6-4 win in game two.

•SMSU’s victory on March 7 snapped a seven-game losing streak in the series dating back to April 7, 2017.

•The last time the two teams met at the NSIC Tournament came on May 1, 2015, with SMSU winning 5-3 in Sioux Falls, S.D.

SMSU

diamond notes

•SMSU closed the regular season last weekend winning one of four games at Minnesota State and Concordia-St. Paul.

•SMSU lost twice by scores of 14-0 to No. 17 MSU on Saturday, before splitting a doubleheader at CSP on Saturday, losing 2-1 in eight innings, before winning 10-5.

•SMSU had 13 combined hits in the first three games of the weekend before breaking out of its slump with 14 hits in game two on Sunday.

•In the final NSIC statistics (NSIC games only), Kali Tomlinson led the conference with 42 base hits. She was also second in doubles (12) and total bases (77), sixth in both runs scored (30) and slugging pct. (.755) and ninth in batting average (.412).

— Content courtesy

of SMSU Athletic

Communications