Click
here for the bracket in PDF.
Click
here for the ASC Tournament History in PDF.
Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor softball team will return to the American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament after a one-year absence when the Cru opens postseason play Friday morning in Lewisville. The Cru finished the regular season with a 35-15 overall record and went 21-3 in ASC West Division play. UMHB won the ASC West for the third time in the last four seasons and the fifth time overall in the program's history. The Cru will receive a first round bye in the three-day, double-elimination tournament and will open the tournament in the second round at 11:00 AM on Friday. The Cru will face the winner of the opening round game between East Division #2 seed Louisiana College (35-5) and West Division #3 seed Hardin-Simmons University (24-11). UMHB will then turn around and play again at either 2:00 PM (loser's bracket) or 5:00 PM (winner's bracket) on Friday. The tournament will wrap up on Saturday and the ASC Tournament champion will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Championships. All of the tournament games will be played at Railroad Park in Lewisville.
Concordia Texas (24-14) and East Texas Baptist University (29-9) will meet in the other first round game. The winner of that game will face East Division champion U.T.-Tyler (35-5) in the second round.
UMHB enters the tournament batting .315 as a team. Cru pitchers have combined for a 2.77 ERA and eight shutouts on the season. UMHB enters the ASC Tournament having won 17 of its last 20 games and the Cru is 5-8 on the season against the other teams in the ASC Tournament field. The Cru went 3-1 against Hardin-Simmons, posted a 2-2 record against Concordia Texas, went 0-3 against Louisiana College and 0-1 against both East Texas Baptist and U.T.-Tyler. Louisiana College, ETBU and U.T.-Tyler all enter the ASC Tournament ranked in the top five in the country by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.
UMHB has qualified for 11 of the 12 ASC Tournaments, narrowly missing a berth last season for the first time in school history. East Texas Baptist has also advanced to the ASC Tournament 11 times, tying the Cru's league record for tournament appearances. U.T.-Tyler won the ASC Tournament last year and Louisiana College and East Texas Baptist also claimed berths in the NCAA Division III National Championships last season.
You can listen to all of the UMHB softball team's games at the ASC Championship Tournament through the UMHB athletic department web site. Just point your browser to http://www2.umhb.edu/athletics/live/audio . Sports Information Director Jon Wallin will call all of the Cru postseason action. You can also follow the ASC Tournament with live stats through the conference web site at www.ascsports.org.
