The game will mark the first time in 15 years the Tiger softball team will have played in the College World Series.

The Tigers qualified for the series when they beat UCLA twice in a best of three last weekend.

The road to the post-season has not been an easy one for the team.

Before the UCLA series, they had to escape the Columbia Regional with wins over Illinois, Bradley and DePaul.

Arizona State is the 2008 College World Series defending champion. The Tigers and Sun Devils have met twelve times before, with Missouri winning only five of the 12 outings.

In its 34-year program history, the MU softball team has appeared in the series three times but never finished higher than fifth.

The College World Series is double elimination, so the Tigers can lose their first game against Arizona State and still have the chance to win it all.

However if the Tigers do win, they will take on the winner of the Washington vs. Georgia noon game.

In the bottom half of Thursday, Michigan will face Alabama at 6 p.M., and arizona will take on the No. 1 seed Florida Gators at 8 p.m.