SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Southern Conference has announced the seeding for the 2017 SoCon Softball Championship, which begins Wednesday at Frost Stadium on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Co-Regular-season champion UNCG (28-22, 11-6 SoCon) is the tournament's top seed. The Spartans clinched a share of the regular-season title, alongside second-seeded Furman, with their defeat of ETSU in UNCG's final contest of the 2017 regular season, giving the program its first SoCon regular-season title. The Spartans will enjoy a day off on Wednesday before starting tournament play on Thursday at 12:30 p.m.
The first game of the double-elimination tournament, which is set for Wednesday at 10 a.m., will feature No. 4 seed Samford (22-34, 10-8 SoCon) against No. 5 seed Mercer (24-29, 9-9 SoCon). The winner of that game will move on to face UNCG on Thursday. In the two teams' regular-season series, the Bulldogs took two of three from the Bears in Birmingham, Alabama.
Second-seeded Furman (31-21, 11-6 SoCon) will meet No. 7 seed Chattanooga (14-36, 4-14 SoCon) in Wednesday's 12:30 p.m. matchup. The Paladins won the regular-season series against the Mocs in the final week of conference play.
No. 3 seed ETSU (25-24, 10-7 SoCon) and No. 6 seed Western Carolina (17-28, 6-11 SoCon) will wrap up Wednesday's action at 3 p.m. The Bucs and Catamounts split a pair of games in Cullowhee, North Carolina, on April 22.
The two-way tie between UNCG and Furman was broken using the league's tiebreaking procedures.
Thursday's slate of games will begin at 10 a.m. and eventually conclude with an 8 p.m. contest. The remaining teams will compete in three games on Friday, which are scheduled for noon, 2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Saturday will feature a championship game at 1 p.m., which may be followed by a 3 p.m. contest if the early game represents the first loss of the tournament for one of the teams. ESPN3 will broadcast Saturday's action.
All games leading up to Saturday will be broadcast on the SoCon Digital Network.
2017 SoCon Softball Championship
Frost Stadium ▪ Chattanooga, Tennessee
Wednesday, May 10
Game 1: No. 4 Samford vs. No. 5 Mercer, 10 a.m., SDN
Game 2: No. 2 Furman vs. No. 7 Chattanooga, 12:30 p.m., SDN
Game 3: No. 3 ETSU vs. No. 6 Western Carolina, 3 p.m., SDN
Thursday, May 11
Game 4: Loser of Game 2 vs. Loser of Game 3, 10 a.m., SDN
Game 5: No. 1 UNCG vs. Winner of Game 1, 12:30 p.m., SDN
Game 6: Winner of Game 2 vs. Winner of Game 3, 3 p.m., SDN
Game 7: Loser of Game 5 vs. Winner of Game 4 , 5:30 p.m., SDN
Game 8: Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 6, 8 p.m., SDN
Friday, May 12
Game 9: Winner of Game 5 vs. Winner of Game 6, Noon, SDN
Game 10: Winner of Game 7 vs. Winner of Game 8, 2:30 p.m., SDN
Game 11: Loser of Game 9 vs. Winner of Game 10, 5 p.m., SDN
Saturday, May 13
Game 12: Winner of Game 9 vs. Winner of Game 11, 1 p.m., ESPN3
Game 13: IF NECESSARY, 3 p.m., ESPN3
All times are Eastern.
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