NNU to host NCAA softball regional pod

The Northwest Nazarene softball team not only qualified for the NCAA Division II Tournament for the fourth season in a row on Monday — the Nighthawks also earned the right to host one of the opening-weekend regional pods.

The Nighthawks earned the No. 2 seed in the West Regional Tournament and as a result will host a four-team pod at Bobby Welch Halle Field in Nampa.

The tournament will begin Thursday with the Nighthawks (39-10) hosting GNAC foe Saint Martin’s (26-20) in the second game at 4 p.m. Concordia Irvine (39-12) and Cal State Dominguez Hills (35-19) make up the other two teams in the pod and play at 1:30 p.m.

The double-elimination tournament will run through Saturday, with the winner advancing to take on the other West Regional pod champion in a best-of-three Super Regional series.

Western Washington, the top seed in the west, will host that pod, with Azusa Pacific, Cal State San Marcos and Cal State East Bay all playing in it. The winner of the Super Regional Series advances to the final eight-team bracket May 19-25 in Longwood, Florida.

This will be the first time Northwest Nazarene has hosted softball NCAA Tournament games and the first time any NNU team has done so since the baseball team hosted the West Regionals in 2021.

The Nighthawks will be looking to advance to the Super Regionals for the first time in program history after coming up a game short last season.