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Central Methodist and Grand View Qualify for the 2022 NAIA Softball National Championship Opening Round
Posted: May 11, 2022

Central Methodist and Grand View Qualify for the 2022 NAIA Softball National Championship Opening Round

The NAIA announced its 40-team field for the 2022 NAIA Softball National Championship Opening Round on Tuesday, and two Heart teams earned a spot in the National Championship, as Central Methodist will serve as the No. 1 seed in the Bowling Green Bracket and Grand View is the No. 2 seed in the Southern Oregon Bracket.

Central Methodist is joined in the Bowling Green bracket, by No. 2 seeded Campbellsville (Ky.), No. 3 Tennessee Wesleyan and No. 4 St. Mary of the Woods (Ind.). Play will begin May 16-18 in Bowling Green, Ky.

Grand View is joined in the Southern Oregon bracket, by No. 1 seeded Southern Oregon, No. 3 seeded Embry Riddle (Ariz.) and No. 4 Taylor (Ind.). Play will begin May 16-18 in Medford, Oregon.

This is the seventh appearance at the National Championship Opening Round for the Eagles, while the Vikings have appeared in eight of them. CMU is 14-10 all-time in the Opening Round, while the Vikings are 7-12.

CMU earned an automatic berth to the championship, after winning both the Heart regular season and conference tournament championship, while Grand View earned the automatic bid as the regular season runner-up.

For a look at the Opening Round Schedule, please click here.

To view the full field of national qualifiers, please click here.

Opening Round Notes

  • Overall, there are 23 repeat qualifiers from the 2021 opening round, including six teams that won opening round titles last season – College of Idaho, Madonna (Mich.), Olivet Nazarene, Oregon Tech, Ottawa (Kan.) and Southern Oregon.
  • Indiana Wesleyan is the lone team in the field with 50 or more wins at 50-8 overall. Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) has the next highest win total at 48-3.
  • Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) and Oklahoma City are back in the field for a 9th time, which leads the field. These two clubs are the only NAIA teams to have participated in every event since the format was established in 2013.
  • There are six newcomers to the opening round in this year's field in Embry-Riddle (Ariz.), Michigan-Dearborn, Mount Marty (S.D.), Saint Mary of the Woods (Ind.), Texas A&M Texarkana and William Jessup (Calif.).
  • Oklahoma City has the honor of the most opening round championships with six. 20 teams in the 2022 field have at least one opening round championship to their credit.
  • The Cascade Collegiate Conference leads all leagues with four teams in the 2022 field. The Crossroads League, Mid-South Conference and The Sun Conference followed with three each.
  • All-Time Opening Round Record by Seed
    • No. 1-Seed: 190-75 (.712)
    • No. 2 seed: 148-132 (.529)
    • No. 3 seed: 97-143 (.404)
    • No. 4 seed: 57-146 (.281)
  • All-Time Opening Round Host Records
    • 2013 Hosts: 24-12 (.667)
    • 2014 Hosts: 27-7 (.794)
    • 2015 Hosts: 27-9 (.750)
    • 2016 Hosts: 22-11 (.667)
    • 2017 Hosts: 18-13 (.581)
    • 2018 Hosts: 16-8 (.667)
    • 2019 Hosts: 20-6 (.762)
    • 2020 Hosts: 11-16 (.407)
    • TOTAL: 165-82 (.668)