Sun Belt Conference Softball Championship Gets Underway On Wednesday At Lamson Park
The 2014 Sun Belt Conference Softball Championship gets underway on Wednesday at Lamson Park with four games on the schedule.
All four games on Wednesday are single-elimination contests, before the tournament switches to a double-elimination format on Thursday, prior to the finals, which are slated for Saturday.
Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajun softball team will be the top-seed in the tournament followed by second-seed South Alabama, third-seeded Georgia St., fourth-seeded WKU, fifth-seeded Texas St., sixth-seeded ULM, seventh-seeded Troy, and eighth-seeded UT-Arlington.
Louisiana, who finished the regular season at 41-7-1, overall, and 19-1 in Sun Belt Conference play, will go into the tournament riding a 12-game win streak, including wins in 33 of their last 35 games.
The Cajuns, who will be hosting the tournament for the fourth time in school history, won their 11th Sun Belt Conference softball regular-season championship in the 13 years of play in the league this year, and will also be hosting as the #1-seed for the third time.
Louisiana and South Alabama, being the top two seeds, draw byes in the opening day of play, and will wait until Thursday to hit the field.
UL is ranked 12th nationally, while USA is ranked 21st.
The Cajuns will play either WKU, Texas St., or UT-Arlington on Thursday at 5 o’clock, while the Jaguars will meet either Georgia St., ULM, or Troy in the game before the Louisiana match-up at 2 pm.
The first game on Wednesday will feature #6-seed ULM (22-25, 6-14) taking on #7-seed Troy (22-29-2, 5-13) at 10 am.
That game will be followed by a match-up between #5-seed Texas St. (26-29, 9-12) and #8-seed UT-Arlington (20-32, 6-14) at 12:30 pm.
At 3 o’clock, third-seeded Georgia St. (30-25, 12-9) will face the ULM/Troy winner, before fourth-seeded WKU (32-22-1, 11-10) faces the Texas St./UT-Arlington winner to wrap-up play in day one.
On Thursday, second-seeded South Alabama (38-11, 15-6) will meet either Georgia St., ULM, or Troy at 2 o’clock, before Louisiana takes on either WKU, Texas St., or UT-Arlington at 5 pm.
The surviving teams move on to play on Friday, with games scheduled for 11 am, 2 pm, and 5 pm.
A single-game championship is slated for Saturday at 3 o’clock.
The complete tournament bracket is below:
2014 Sun Belt Conference Softball Championship
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
G1 No. 6 ULM vs. No. 7 Troy 10:00 AM
G2 No. 5 Texas St. vs. No. 8 UT Arlington 12:30 PM
G3 Winner G1 vs. No. 3 Georgia St. 3:00 PM
G4 Winner G2 vs. No. 4 WKU 5:30 PM
Thursday, May 8, 2014
G5 Winner G3 vs. No. 2 South Alabama 2:00 PM
G6 Winner G4 vs. No. 1 Louisiana 5:00 PM
Friday, May 9, 2014
G7 Loser G5 vs. Loser G6 11:00 AM
G8 Winner G5 vs. Winner G6 2:00 PM
G9 Loser G8 vs. Winner G7 5:00 PM
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Championship Game