KUTZTOWN, Pa. (May 2, 2012)—Top-seeded Kutztown University will take on the Rams of Winston-Salem State University in its opening round of the 2012 NCAA Atlantic Regional 1 Tournament on Friday, May 4 at approximately 3:30 p.m. at North Campus Field.

For more information regarding ticket prices, live stats, live streaming, and directions, visit the KU Tournament Page.

Kutztown (45-4 overall) is making its tenth consecutive trip to the NCAA Atlantic Regionals and this weekend will mark the first time it is hosting the tournament. Fourth-seeded Indiana (Pa.) will open the tournament at 1 p.m. on Friday against fifth-seeded West Virginia State.

The Golden Bears enter the tournament ranked third in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Top 25 poll.
WSSU (32-17) is the eighth seed in the Atlantic Region and is the 2012 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) champion for the second straight season.

The Golden Bears are hoping to rebound this weekend after a tough week in last week's Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championships. However, they have put that behind them and are looking forward to the future.

“Not winning the PSAC made it hard for us to adjust back into regionals, but hosting is really good for us,” junior catcher Katie Lynch (Willow Street, PA/Lampeter-Strasburg)  (Willow Street, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg) said. “We're hosting the PSAC champion and it'll be good for us to come out strong our first game and really make a statement.”

Lynch, who leads the team in homers (12) was unable to play in KU's final game of the PSAC tournament due to an illness, found it hard to cope with the fact that she couldn't contribute to her team.

“It was tough watching that game and not being able to help my team,” Lynch said. “I'm excited to come back this weekend and play. We lost our competitive spirit with our two losses last week.  Now that we've moved on from that, we're just ready to come back strong as a team and work as one unit.”

One important unit for Kutztown this season has been its ace pitcher Samantha Derr (Lititz, PA/Warwick) (Lititz, Pa./Warwick). Derr holds a 26-2 record and a 0.67 earned run average (ERA) which is second amongst NCAA Division II. This year she has held her opponents to a .173 batting average. Regardless of her accolades during her sophomore campaign, Derr knows that there is more work for Kutztown to do on the field.

“We're trying to start new this week,” Derr said. “Everything was working well for a while but we hit a bump at the PSAC championships, so now we're just going back to the little things.”

Derr credits her defense for her success this season but KU's offense includes nine of its top ten players batting over .300. Kutztown knows that if it combines both of those factors this weekend, then its journey to advancing to Super Regionals is within arm's reach.

The winner of the KU-WSSU game will play the winner of the IUP-WVS game on Saturday, May 5 at 10:30 a.m. The losers of Friday's game will meet at 1 p.m. on Saturday for an elimination game.