Great Plains Athletic Conference softball and baseball teams continued their post season NAIA competition Tuesday while seeking spots in the national finals.
Fifteenth-ranked Morningside defeated Great Falls 4-1 in Tuesday’s winner’s bracket final to advance to Wednesday’s championship game in the Morningside Bracket of the NAIA Softball National Championship Opening Round in Sioux City.
The Mustangs will take a 46-8 record and a seven-game winning streak into the championship game against Great Falls, which defeated No. 4 Campbellsville 5-1 in Tuesday’s loser’s bracket final.
The winner of the Morningside Bracket will advance to the 2016 NAIA Softball World Series slated for May 27 to June 2 at Morningside’s Jensen Softball Complex. Great Falls would have to defeat Morningside twice in Wednesday’s final of the double-elimination Morningside Bracket in order to advance.
• No. 4-seed Doane (Neb.) participated in two extra-inning contests. Playing in the elimination round of the Oklahoma City Bracket, the Tigers defeated No. 3 Friends (Kan.), 1-0, in eight innings before bowing out in an 18-inning affair by a 1-0 count against No. 2 Houston-Victoria (Texas).
In baseball regionals, Morningside and Midland both went 1-1 in first day play.
Morningside, playing in the Hutchinson, Ks., regional, beat Mayville State 6-0 before losing to Arts and Science of Oklahoma 24-1.
Midland, playing in the Jamestown, N.D., regional, beat Avila 14-10 before losing to Sterling, Ks., 22-3.
Both GPAC teams face elimination games Wednesday.
