Southern Arkansas University’s baseball and softball teams both have brought home 2014 Great American Conference Championship trophies and are gearing up for regional play.

After losing their first game of the 2014 Great American Conference Baseball Tournament, the Southern Arkansas baseball team fought their way through the loser’s bracket winning four-straight elimination games as they captured their third-consecutive GAC Tournament Championship by beating Arkansas-Monticello by a score of 6-2 on Tuesday afternoon at the David Allen Memorial Ballpark in Enid, Okla. Read the full story at MuleriderAthletics.com.

As the 2014 GAC Tournament champions, the Muleriders earn the league’s first automatic bid to the NCAA Central Region Tournament. This will mark the Muleriders’ seventh-straight appearance in a NCAA Regional Tournament. The Muleriders have also won four-consecutive conference championships and five out of the last six as they won tournament championships in the Gulf South Conference in 2009 and 2011.

The Muleriders will now await when and where they will continue their season in the Central Regional Tournament as the NCAA will have their selection show on Sunday, May 11 at 9 p.m. CT.

 Just a couple of days after capturing their first-ever Great American Conference Championship and earning an automatic bid into the NCAA Division II Central Region Tournament, the Southern Arkansas softball team learned that they will enter that tournament as the No. 8-seed as it was announced by the NCAA during the selection show on Monday morning.

As the No. 8-seed, the Lady Muleriders (37-24) will be traveling to Winona, Minnesota to take on top-seeded and host-school Winona State in the first game of the tournament for both teams. That game is scheduled to have a first-pitch of 1 p.m. CST on Friday, May 9.

The NCAA regional tournament berth is the first in the SAU softball program, which began in 1999.

Stories by Daniel Gallegos/SAU SID.