Southeastern softball’s NCAA Tournament push ramps up this week with the SLC Tournament

HAMMOND, La. — Southeastern’s softball team enters postseason play with a 43-13 record, their fourth straight 40-win season under head coach Rick Fremin.

21 of those have happened at North Oak Park, one of the two host sites for this year’s Southland Conference tournament.

“That was one of our goals, to be one of the host sites, to sleep in our own bed. I think Hammond, America, has a lot to offer. We’ve hosted the tournament quite a bit in the last few years, and it’s a great environment. The town really gets behind it as well as the athletic department. So we’re really looking forward to it,” said Southeastern head softball coach Rick Fremin.

Southeastern posted ten straight wins in April, but that streak was snapped with a series loss to Nicholls over the weekend.

An opportunistic wake-up call ahead of the Lady Lions’ Southland tournament title defense.

“They’re in our pod. Obviously they have a great program. It’ll be a good, good run throughout the tournament. Hopefully, we’ll see them at some point. We still have business to take care of against Houston Christian in the first game, but always those rivalry games, you can throw out all the stats and things like that because it’s a short distance between the two institutions,” said Fremin.

Richie Mills: “After that taste of regional play last year, how motivated is this group to make it back?”

“Well, I mean, I’ve been to the regional several times, and there’s nothing like ending your season in the postseason at an NCAA regional. We want to end our season there every year, and we believe we have a quality program to do that,” added Fremin.

Southeastern finished 2-2 in the Tuscaloosa regional last year, and now they are five wins away from their second straight NCAA Tournament berth.

The Lady Lions are the two-seed in this year’s Southland Conference Tournament, and their postseason opener is Thursday at 4 p.m. against Houston Christian.