CEDAR CITY, Utah - Southern Utah University softball has qualified as the No. 3 seed at the Summit League tournament and will open the weekend, facing No. 2 IPFW on Thursday afternoon.

Games will continue on Friday with the winner's bracket game set for 2:00 p.m. and the elimination game set for 11:00 a.m. Staving off elimination on Friday morning will set up a second game on Friday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. The tournament finale will be played on Saturday at Noon with a second game scheduled for 2:40 p.m. if necessary.

The Thunderbirds will enter the tournament having captured at least one victory against every team in the tournament, including two over UMKC at home in Cedar and one at IPFW and North Dakota State.

Southern Utah's top hitter, Mikkel Griffin, had a career day against the Kangaroos on March 31, going 4-for-4 at the dish with three home runs and six RBI. Griffin finished the regular season second in the Summit League with a .413 average and was joined in the top ten by Terysa Dyer (.383, 3rd) and Tessa Loewen (.325, 10th).

Despite not leading the Summit League, Southern Utah's pitching staff finished the 2012 regular season with a 3.78 ERA, one of its best seasons since the 2006 campaign when the T-Birds had a staff ERA of 3.59 and made a run into the NCAA tournament. Heather Black has been the headliner of the group with the senior leading the team in every pitching statistic, including wins (19), saves (three), innings pitched (193.0) and strikeouts (143).

Fans can follow each of the games this weekend via live stat links that are anticipated to be available online at www.suutbirds.com. A free video stream will also be available for each game at www.umkckangaroos.com.

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