MOUNT BERRY, Ga. - No. 2 Berry has been awarded the top seed in the Mary Hardin-Baylor Regional as part of the NCAA Division III Softball Championship. The Vikings will start play Thursday at 5:30 p.m. EDT in Belton, Texas against Rosemont.

The Vikings (36-4) earned the automatic bid from the Southern Athletic Association into the NCAA's. Hannah Gore pitched 12 shutout innings in the SAA Championship to earn Tournament MVP honors as the Vikings defeated Millsaps twice in pod play, then took the first two games of the championship series over Birmingham-Southern to clinch the title for the second year in a row.

Berry's offense is paced by Katie White, the SAA Player of the Year for 2023. The sophomore has a team-leading 62 hits with 25 of those going for extra bases. White started the season as the leadoff batter, but since moving to the third spot in the order Mar. 18 with the start of SAA play at Centre, White has helped the Vikings to a 22-game winning streak.

The shift also coincided with Morgan Frye moving up to the second spot in the lineup. The junior is Berry's leader in home runs this season with 10, having set the career record for Berry with 27 against Millsaps to close SAA Pod Play. The Suwanee, Ga., native his batting .455 for the season with a team-best 45 RBI and a 24-of-24 stolen base clip.

The third head in the triumverate that makes up the heart of the Berry lineup is junior catcher Anna Jackson. The 2022 NFCA/Diamond Sports D-III Catcher of the Year, Jackson has 25 extra base hits in the cleanup spot and has 39 RBI, the third-best mark on the team behind Frye and White (40).

The Vikings will open with Rosemont (21-17), which earned the Colonial States Athletic Conference's automatic bid to the championship. Senior Lauren Begg is one of the leading hitters in the country, owning 70 hits and a .538 batting average. She also owns the most wins on the Ravens' pitching staff with 11.

In the other game Thursday, the No. 2 seed and host Mary Hardin-Baylor (32-12) will open play in the regional against St. Thomas (32-8). The two teams have already met for a doubleheader this season, with UMHB earning a 1-0 win in eight innings before falling in the nightcap, 4-2. That doubleheader, however, was all the way back on Feb. 18  St. Thomas won the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference's tournament and automatic bid, while UMHB is an at-large team in the tournament after finishing as the American Southwest Conference regular season champions.

Winners of the two Thursday games will move on to play in the Winner's Bracket on Friday at 1 p.m. EDT. The losing teams will move to the Loser's Bracket of the double elimination regional, with that first game scheduled for 3:30 p.m. EDT.