ASC Tournament Central
BELTON, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor softball team will open play in the 2021 American Southwest Conference Tournament on Friday, May 7
th. UMHB won the West Division and earned a first-round bye in the tournament.
The 2021 ASC Tournament features the top two seeds in the East and West Divisions and next four teams with the highest win percentage, regardless of division. No. 7 Hardin-Simmons opens the tournament against No. 6 McMurry. The winner of that game advances to face West No. 2 Concordia Texas. No. 8 LeTourneau and No. 5 Sul Ross State face off in the first round with the winner of that match taking on East No. 2 East Texas Baptist.
Tournament-host and East Division winner Belhaven will open double-elimination play on Thursday, playing the winner of Concordia Texas and Hardin-Simmons/McMurry. UMHB will follow and play the winner of East Texas Baptist and Sul Ross State/LeTourneau. The championship game is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 8
th with an if-needed game to follow.
UMHB won the West Division with a 25-12 overall record and 19-8 mark in conference play. The Cru is 10-8 against tournament-participants this season. Sophomore
Lexi Harris leads the Cru with 40 runs scored, 46 hits and three triples while freshman
Elissa Elliott has a team-high 32 RBI and nine doubles.
Bailey Wagner is UMHB's home run leader with five and also leads the Cru with a .435 batting average.
Bailey Eggleston has Harris's hits matched at 46 and also leads with 61 total bases. UMHB's pitching staff is led by
Bayleigh Grogan with a 2.91 ERA. Grogan has 15 wins on the season with 69 strikeouts.
The winner of the 2021 ASC Softball Championship Tournament will claim the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Championships. Continuing coverage of the tournament can be found at cruathletics.com and ascsports.org.
