2016 Softball Championship Bracket
Championship Central
NEW ORLEANS – The UL Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns claimed a 14th regular season softball title in 16 years and earned the No. 1 seed in the 2016 Sun Belt Conference Softball Championship tournament beginning Wednesday, May 11 in Mobile, Ala.
UL Lafayette (40-7 overall, 21-2 Sun Belt) entered the final weekend of conference play ranked No. 9 in the USA Today/NFCA Coaches poll. The Ragin' Cajuns earned a bye on the tournament's first day and will open play on Thursday, May 12th, at 10a.m. CT. The South Alabama Jaguars, the host of this week’s tournament, also earned a bye through the first day. The 2015 tournament champions enter this year’s tournament as the No. 2 seed.
USA (32-16, 16-6) wrapped up the regular season with a 7-0 sweep of Troy. The Jaguars also await their opponent and are set to play their first game of the tournament at 12:30 p.m. CT on Thursday.
The Texas State Bobcats (36-18, 15-9) ended the regular season and locked up the No. 3 seed by defeating UT Arlington in five innings by a score of 8-0. The Bobcats have won 11 of their last 12 conference games, including the last nine straight, and earned the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament for the second year in a row.
The top four seeds will play at minimum two games at the conference tournament, due to earning byes into the double elimination portion of the tournament. The morning session on Wednesday will feature two single elimination games with double elimination beginning in the afternoon. The Bobcats will play at 5:30 p.m. CT on Wednesday against the winner of the game between No. 6 Troy and No. 7 UT Arlington.
Georgia State (30-26, 13-11) took two from Georgia Southern over the weekend to clinch the No. 4 seed. With the series win over the Eagles, the Panthers have now won 30 or more games in each of the last 10 seasons. GSU will begin its tournament on Wednesday at 3 p.m. CT against the winner of No. 5 Georgia Southern (30-26, 13-11) vs. No. 8 UL Monroe (23-32, 7-17).
The Georgia Southern Eagles earned the No. 5 seed and will kick off the tournament on Wednesday at 10 a.m. CT against No. 8 seed UL Monroe. The Eagles claimed the series 2-1 when the two squads met in April during the regular season.
Rounding out the bracket are the No. 6 seeded Troy Trojans (30-23, 11-13) and the No. 7 seeded UT Arlington Mavericks (29-19, 8-16). The Trojans and the Mavericks will square off at 12:30 p.m. CT.
The 2016 Sun Belt Conference Softball Championship will be played at Jaguar Field in Mobile Ala., and hosted by the University of South Alabama. The first two days of games will be streamed live on the Sun Belt Digital Network, with the Friday games and Saturday championship game being carried by ESPN3. The championship game will be played at 1:00 p.m. CT on Saturday, May 14.
2016 Sun Belt Conference Softball Championship Schedule
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
G1 No. 5 Georgia Southern vs. No. 8 UL Monroe 10:00 AM (Sun Belt Digital Network)
G2 No. 6 Troy vs. No. 7 UT Arlington 12:30 PM (Sun Belt Digital Network)
G3 Winner G1 vs. No. 4 Georgia State 3:00 PM (Sun Belt Digital Network)
G4 Winner G2 vs. No. 3 Texas State 5:30 PM (Sun Belt Digital Network)
Thursday, May 12, 2014
G5 No. 1 UL Lafayette vs. Winner G3 10:00 AM (Sun Belt Digital Network)
G6 No. 2 South Alabama vs. Winner G4 12:30 PM (Sun Belt Digital Network)
G7 Loser G4 vs. Loser G5 3:00 PM (Sun Belt Digital Network)
G8 Loser G3 vs. Loser G6 5:30 PM (Sun Belt Digital Network)
Friday, May 13, 2016
G9 Winner G5 vs. Winner G6 11:00 AM (ESPN3)
G10 Winner G7 vs. Winner G8 2:00 PM (ESPN3)
G11 Loser G9 vs. Winner G10 5:00 PM (ESPN3)
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Championship Game
G12 Winner G9 vs. Winner G11 1:00 PM (ESPN3)
All times C.T. and subject to change