A big rivalry game marks the beginning of Central’s run through the double-elimination NCAA Division III softball tournament on Thursday. Central will face Cornell in round number one in a match-up between a pair of schools that were in the same conference for quite some time. The Dutch garnered the number two seed in their regional, thanks to a 28 – 8 overall record and a 12 – 2 Iowa Conference mark. Despite getting knocked out in the first round of their conference tournament on Sunday, and despite, arguably, the meaninglessness of the tournament for the Dutch, Coach George Wares is telling his girls to keep their chins up and focus on the bigger picture ahead of them this week. Cornell went 22 – 14 this year and grabbed the number seven seed in the Pella Regional. All of the postseason softball action will start at 4:00 p.m. Thursday, and can be heard live on kniakrls.com.