KANSAS CITY, Mo. – (Schedule) (Bracket Reveal Video) The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has officially announced the 40-team field and pairings for the 2019 NAIA Softball National Championship Opening Round. The seventh annual event will take place from May 13 - 15 at ten different locations. The format is a double-elimination, four-team tournament. For more information on the host sites, click here.
 
The 40-team field is comprised of 31 automatic qualifiers and nine at-large berths. The 19 conferences receive one berth per six teams and two berths per ten teams. At-large teams were determined using the final regular-season Coaches' Top 25 Poll released earlier today, which can be accessed here.
 
The 18^th ranked Cougars have been picked to host the Columbia (Mo.) Bracket. Columbia College received the second seed in the pool with Valley City State (N.D.) Universtiy, Madonna (Mich.) University and Brenau (Ga.) University taking the other three spots. Columbia College will play their first game of the opening round on Monday, May 13^th against Brenau (Ga.) University starting at 11:00 a.m.
 
The Cougars, who clinched a spot in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round after winning the AMC Championships, come into the opening round with a 35-10 record on the year. They are currently riding an eight game winning streak and rank in the top 10 nationally in three different statistical categories. They currently rank sixth in both homeruns per game (1.000) and slugging percentage (0.555), and ninth in runs batted in per game (6.378).
 
Valley City State, who clinched a spot in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round after winning the NSAA Tournament Championship, come into the opening round with an overall record of 51-3. They are currently ranked in the top 10 nationally in twelve different statistical categories, including first in total caught stealing (25), second in total batters struck out (421), fourth in total doubles (107), fifth in caught stealing per game (0.463), as well as total hits (541), opp batting average (0.182), and earned run average (1.380), sixth in total runs scored (384), eighth in total runs batted in (331), and tenth in batting average (0.360), hits per game (10.019), and doubles per game (1.981).
 
Madonna, who clinched a spot in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round after winning the WHAC Championships, come into the opening round with an overall record of 35-13. They currently rank in the top 10 nationally in two different statistical categories including third in total triples (26), and seventh in triples per game (0.542).
 
Brenau, who clinched a spot in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round after winning the AAC Tournament Championship, come into the opening round with an overall record of 34-10.