DENVER – The NCAA Division II Softball Championship is about to play out at MSU Denver's Assembly Athletic Complex.
 
Eight regional champions from around the country have earned spots in the tournament, which is a double-elimination event until two finalists emerge. From there it's a best-of-three series to determine the title.
 
Play begins Thursday at 11 a.m., with four games scheduled for each of the first three days. Sunday's schedule will be anywhere from one to three games, including the first game of the national championship series.
 
The champion will be determined Monday in either the second game of the series at noon, or in a 2:30 p.m. game three, if necessary.
 
Tickets are available here for $8 per game. The complex will be cleared after each game for cleaning and sanitizing.
 
You can follow the five-day event at Tournament Central.
 
The tournament field includes top-ranked Augustana (S.D.), which won the last Division II softball championship – also played at MSU Denver – in 2019. The Vikings are led by All-America second team pitcher Ashley Mikschl, who was the most outstanding player of the 2019 championship, and fellow All-Americans Kendall Cornick (first team), Mary Pardo (third team) and Torri Chute (third team). Pardo made the all-tournament team at the national championship in 2019.
 
Augustana (47-6) will face ninth-ranked, but eighth-seeded, Valdosta State (Ga.) in the tournament opener. The Blazers, 38-9, feature All-America first team shortstop Nicole Pennington and third-team All-Americans Kiley Robb and Morgan Hill.
 
The tournament's second seed is 18^th-ranked Saint Anselm (N.H.), who are 32-5 and feature first-team All-America pitcher Morgan Perry. They'll face unranked seventh-seed West Chester (Pa.), which is 34-14 and returns to Denver after also reaching the national championship in 2019. That first-round game is set for 4 p.m. Thursday.
 
Also coming back to Denver is third-seeded and 13^th-ranked Grand Valley State (Mich.), which brings a 44-8 record into its 6:30 p.m. matchup Thursday against sixth-seeded and 12^th-ranked West Texas A&M (36-11). Pitcher Hannah Beatus is a third-team All-American for Grand Valley State, while West Texas A&M has two All-America first team selections in catcher Shanna McBroom and outfielder Ruby Salzman.
 
The other first-round matchup is the second game Thursday, scheduled for 1:30 p.m., between fourth-seeded but national No. 2 North Georgia (40-6) and fifth-seeded and 24^th-ranked Biola (Calif.), which brings a 20-12 record to Denver. North Georgia features four-time first-team All-American pitcher Kylee Smith, just the fourth player ever to earn that distinction. Smith's teammate, shortstop Margaret Simmons, earned All-America second team.
 
Augustana's Cornick, West Texas A&M's McBroom and Valdosta State's Pennington were all named player of the year in their respective conferences. North Georgia's Smith and Saint Anselm's Perry were conference pitchers of the year.