MOBILE, Ala. — The
Spring Hill College softball team will compete in the South I Regional bracket in the NCAA Division II Softball Championship Regionals this week, hosted by Saint Leo University in Saint Leo, Florida.
The South Region is made up of two Regionals, South I and South II, which will host eight teams. Eight-seed Spring Hill will open against the top-seeded Saint Leo on Thursday at 11 a.m./noon ET. The fourth-seeded Auburn University Montgomery will face the fifth-seeded University of Tampa at 2 p.m. CT/3 p.m. ET, that same day.
The Winners will advance to Friday and play at 11 a.m./noon ET, while the losers from Thursday will play an elimination game at 2 p.m. CT/3 p.m. ET.
The Badgers are coming off their third straight SIAC Conference Tournament Championship and fourth in program history (2019, 2024, 2025, and 2026) after defeating Fort Valley State University for the title. Spring Hill went 4-1, posting a conference tournament record, while entering the NCAA tournament with a 34-23 mark and finishing conference play with a 20-2 record.
Spring Hill at the plate is led by SIAC Player of the Year
Meadow Villar. The redshirt senior finished the regular season with a 0.440 batting average, which, if it holds above .430 through postseason play, will break the Spring Hill Division II record. She led Spring Hill and was top five in both home runs and RBI, with 9 and 52, respectively, and added 10 doubles and scored 28 runs. A near-master of the strike zone, Villar only struck out 4 times in 166 at-bats and drew 19 walks.
In the circle, the Badgers are led by
Bethany Ahrens, who was one of just two SIAC pitchers to post a sub-1.00 ERA in conference play as she went 6-1 in five conference starts and posted a 0.90 ERA. The junior had the lowest opponent batting average in the SIAC at 0.101, allowing just 13 hits in conference games. Ahrens was also always a present threat at the plate, hitting .364, with eight extra-base hits, two home runs, six doubles, and 23 RBI.
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ABOUT THE SOUTHERN INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETIC CONFERENCE (SIAC)
The SIAC is a NCAA athletic conference consisting primarily of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with headquarters in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The SIAC includes 15 member institutions (Albany State University, Allen University, Benedict College, Central State University, Clark Atlanta University, Edward Waters University, Fort Valley State University, Kentucky State University, Lane College, LeMoyne-Owen College, Miles College, Morehouse College, Savannah State University, Spring Hill College, and Tuskegee University), which are located within a contiguous seven-state footprint (Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and Ohio). The SIAC sponsors nine men's and seven women's sports and is a proud member of the NCAA Division II. For more information, visit
www.thesiac.com.