Livingstone knew it would be dancing in the Division II playoffs, but the Blue Bears didn’t get the ideal partner when pairings were announced late Sunday night,
Livingstone wasn’t expecting to be a high seed in the eight-team Atlantic Regional, but as CIAA tournament champions, the Blue Bears (21-7) figured to be seeded somewhere from fifth to seventh.
Instead, they were seeded eighth. What that means is they won’t be playing a neutral-site game in the first round. Instead, they’ll be playing a road game against top-seeded East Stroudsburg, the regional host.
East Stroudsburg is 28-1 and ranked second nationally.
Still, the Blue Bears were toughened up by some early road games in Florida, and they’ll go to Pennsylvania believing they can win not just against East Stroudsburg’s Warriors, but two more games as well.
The Atlantic Regional tournament format is Saturday-Sunday-Tuesday. The regional winner advances to the national Elite Eight tourney in Evansville, Ind.
• GRU Augusta, which gets major contributions from West Rowan grads K.J. and Keshun Sherrill was seeded fifth in the Southeast Regional. USC Aiken is the No. 1 seed and regional host. SAC regular season and tourmanent champion Lincoln Memorial is the No. 2 seed in the region.
Lincoln Memorial beat Anderson 76-71 in Sunday’s tournament final.
GRU Augusta will play Anderson, the No. 4 seed, in the opening round.
• Wingate won the SAC women’s tournament championship by beating Lenoir-Rhyne 77-73 on Sunday.
Lenoir-Rhyne still is the No. 1 seed and host for the women’s Southeastern Regional and opens against No. 8 Armstrong. Wingate is the No. 3 seed and opens against No. 6 Belmont Abbey.
Catawba lost two games on Sunday, falling to Kentucky Wesleyan 3-0 and North Georgia 2-1.
Carley Tysinger (9-2) lost the North Georgia game despite a five-hitter. Tysinger had two hits. Holli Chandler had a triple for the Indians (13-6).
• North Carolina A&T’s Zebresha Blakeney (A.L. Brown) has started 15 games and has 10 hits. She’s 6-for-6 on steal attempts.
• Chelsea White (East) pitched into the seventh inning in a 3-2 win against Radford on Sunday. White (7-3) struck out six and walked one.
• Campbell’s Ericka Nesbitt is batting .364 with 12 steals. Nesbitt has 28 hits in 25 games.
• Pfeiffer’s Sydney Poole (East) held Tusculum to two runs in seven innings Sunday, but got no decision. Pfeiffer lost 5-4 in extras. Poole struck out two, walked one and allowed eight hits.
New York Mets reliever Bobby Parnell (East Rowan) threw an inning against Atlanta Sunday. Parnell struck out one and allowed one hit.
• Tampa Bay’s Jerry Sands (Catawba) is 6-for-16 with two homers and five RBIs this spring. Sands homered against the Pittsburgh Pirates, who waived him, and the Minnesota Twins.
• Seattle’s Kyle Seager (NW Cabarrus, Kannapolis Legion) is 6-for-20.
Carlos Dixon (South Rowan) is averaging 18.8 points in Japan. Dixon scored 16 in a win on Saturday.
Men’s Open softball league and preseason tournament — Coaches meeting on March 10 at 6 at Hall Gym.