CCAC Softball Tournament bracket

St. Ambrose begins what it hopes to be a long postseason run Wednesday in the first round of the CCAC Softball Tournament.

The Bees will open the double-elimination, eight-team bracket against Indiana South Bend at 3 p.m. at the Crown Point Sportsplex in Crown Point, Ind.

SAU (30-17) tied for second in the conference during the regular season but earned the No. 3 seed after dropping two-of-three games to St. Francis during the year.

St. Ambrose will face No. 6 seed IU South Bend (14-28). The Bees swept the three-game series from the Titans on Apr. 17-18, with two of the wins lasting just five innings.

The winner will face the winner of the Trinity Christian-St. Francis game Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. The losers of the first-round games will square off in an elimination game, also at 5:30.

Top-seed Saint Xavier, who has already secured a bid to the NAIA National Championship Opening Round, will play Calumet and No. 4 seed Olivet Nazarene will take on Viterbo in the other two first-round matchups.

The tournament runs through Saturday. The winner will also earn an automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship Opening Round May 11-14 at one of 10 sites.