UL Lafayette Claims Sun Belt Regular Season Title and Top Seed in 2015 Softball Championship

Championship Central
2015 Championship Bracket

NEW ORLEANS – UL Lafayette claimed the 13th regular season Sun Belt softball Championship in school history and will be the top seed for the 2015 Softball Championship set to begin May 6 at Bobcat Softball Stadium in San Marcos, Texas.  

The 2015 Sun Belt Conference Softball Championship will be held at Bobcat Softball Stadium for the first time. The tournament begins on Wednesday with the opening round contests between No. 5 seed Georgia State (35-19, 14-10) and No. 8 seed Georgia Southern (12-38, 4-20) at 10 a.m. CT.  Following that game is the second opening round contest between No. 6 seed UL Monroe (28-20, 10-12) and No. 7 seed UT Arlington (27-27, 8-15) at 12:30 p.m. CT.

Awaiting the winners of those games will be the No. 3 seed Texas State (32-20, 14-6) and No. 4 seed Troy (32-22, 14-9) in the quarterfinals. Texas State will play the winner of the UL Monroe and UT Arlington matchup while Troy takes on the winner between Georgia State and Georgia Southern. The winners of those single-elimination games advance to play the top two seeds in this year's tournament, South Alabama (35-10, 16-4) and UL Lafayette (37-8, 20-3), when double-elimination play begins on Thursday.

No. 1 seed UL Lafayette locked up the regular season championship this past weekend as it swept a three game set against UL Monroe.  It is the Ragin’ Cajuns 13th Sun Belt regular season championship in the 16-year history of Sun Belt softball.  The Ragin’ Cajuns will look to win the conference tournament for the second consecutive season.  UL Lafayette has been ranked in the Top 10 in at least one of the national polls every week this year and is currently No. 10 in the NFCA Poll and No. 11 in the USA Softball Poll. 

No. 2 seed South Alabama will look to reach the finals of the Sun Belt Championship for the fourth consecutive season after winning the championship in 2012 and 2013.  The Jaguars joined the Cajuns in earning a double bye to Thursday. South Alabama has been ranked in the Top 25 every week except one and enter the tournament ranked No. 22/25. 

Texas State will host its first Sun Belt Championship as the No. 3 seed after winning three games against UT Arlington this weekend.  The Bobcats earned a first round bye and will begin their title pursuit at 3 p.m. CT on Wednesday against the winner of UL Monroe and UT Arlington.

Troy claimed the No. 4 seed in the tournament despite falling in two out of three games to South Alabama this weekend.  This is the Trojans highest seed since 2009 when they were ranked second in the conference.  Troy will take on the winner of Georgia State and Georgia Southern.

Georgia State earned the No. 5 seed with a season-ending sweep of Georgia Southern.  The two will meet again in each team’s championship opener at 10 a.m. CT in the first round on Wednesday.  No. 8 seed Georgia Southern qualified for the conference tournament in its inaugural season in the Sun Belt. 

UL Monroe claimed the No. 6 seed to match the program's highest ever finish in the standings. UL Monroe takes on No. 7 seed UT Arlington to begin the tournament on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m.

The 2015 Sun Belt Conference Softball Championship will be played at Bobcat Softball Stadium, hosted by Texas State University. The championship game of the 2015 Sun Belt Conference Softball

Championship will be played at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 9, and will be televised live on ESPN3.  All games on Wednesday and Thursday will be streamed live on sunbeltsports.org. Friday’s three games will be televised live on ESPN3. 

2015 Sun Belt Conference Softball Championship
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
G1          No. 5 Georgia State vs. No. 8 Georgia Southern  - 10:00 AM
G2         No. 6 UL Monroe vs. No. 7 UT Arlington - 12:30 PM
G3         Winner G1 vs. No. 4 Troy - 3:00 PM
G4         Winner G2 vs. No. 3 Texas State  - 5:30 PM

Thursday, May 8, 2014
G5          Winner G3 vs. No. 1 UL Lafayette - 2:00 PM
G6          Winner G4 vs. No. 2 South Alabama - 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
G10        Winner G8 vs. Winner G9 - 1:00 PM