SALEM, Va. – The Trine University softball team will serve as the No. 2 seed at the upcoming finals of the 2026 NCAA Division III Softball Championship which will be hosted by the City of Salem, Va and the Old Dominion Athletic Conference at the Moyer Sports Complex. Their first game is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 28.
The eight team final begins for everyone on Thursday, with four games throughout the day. Bracket play will be double elimination and run through Sunday, May 31. The two remaining teams will then face each other in a best of three series running from Tuesday, June 2 through Wednesday, June 3.
Tickets are available for purchase at the venue with either cash or credit card. You can purchase an all-session pass online. For more information on ticketing, including pricing and online purchase, can be found at the event's Tournament Central.
The Finals will be broadcast for free by the NCAA with the stream available online in the NCAA Championships Pass. Live stats for each event can be found on the tournament bracket.
The Thunder will open competition with a game against seventh seeded Belhaven University, who are making their second trip to the final site in the past three seasons. This will be the second meeting between the two teams this season, with the first going in favor of Trine by the score of 6-4. That game came during the NFCA Leadoff Classic on March 7.
The Blazers earned the right to host the Collegiate Conference of the South Softball Tournament after winning the regular season with a 15-1 record. They lost their first game of that tournament but ultimately won all the way back to secure an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
This is the sixth-straight season the team has been on the national stage, but it was the first time ever they were selected to host a regional. They won their first two games with an 8-2 victory over Westminster (Pa.) College and a 9-1 run-rule result against Emory University. Emory returned the favor in the first championship game, but the Blazers shut them out in the final game of the regional.
Belhaven hosted the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh for the super regional round and won two straight for their spot in the final site.
The Blazers boast a strong offense including a nation leading doubles count. They are also top-ten in hits, home runs, RBIs and slugging percentage. Maryanna Guy leads the team offensively, sitting top 40 nationally in hits, home runs and RBIs. In the circle Macy Funderburk is the ace. She sits in the top 100 in ERA, Strikeouts and Strikeout-to-walk ratio. She is top 40 in hits allowed per game.
The Thunder also boast an impressive offense, perhaps the best in the nation. As a team they lead the country in home runs, home runs per game, RBIs per game and slugging percentage. They are top five in doubles, doubles per game, on-base percentage, RBIs, scoring and walks.
This past week they broke program records for RBIs and doubles in a season. They also climbed to 72 home runs for the year, just four back from the program record of 76 set in 2013. Accounting for 48 of those homers are Debbie Hill, Tyra Marcum and Emma Lee, currently tied atop the team, and in the top ten in the country, with 16 each. They are also in the top ten in slugging percentage.
The Thunder earned their spot in the NCAA Tournament by winning their seventh straight Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) regular season title and their fifth straight MIAA tournament. They have needed the maximum number of games in each the regional and super regional rounds but are currently 5-0 in elimination games on their way to the final site.
Hill played hero during the super regional, coming up with a five-inning win in circle during the second game before walking off the final game in extra innings with a two-out, two-run homer. She was named Super Regional Most Outstanding Player.
With a win on Thursday, Trine would advance to the winners' side of the bracket and would face either the three seeded Simpson College or sixth seeded University of Mount Union. That game would also produce their opponent in the event of a loss.
