East Central University
Ada —
East Central University will battle Southern Arkansas on Thursday at 10 a.m. in the opening game of the Great American Conference Softball Championship Tournament at the Tiger Athletic Complex in Bentonville, Ark.
ECU will enter the tournament as the No. 3 seed. The Lady Tigers are 25-16 on the season, heading into a Tuesday night non-conference doubleheader at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee. ECU went 15-11 in the GAC’s regular season.
Southern Arkansas is the No. 6 seed in the eight-team field. The Lady Muleriders went 24-31 overall and 11-17 in the conference.
Other first-round games on Thursday include: No. 2 seed Southeastern Oklahoma State against No. 7 seed Arkansas Tech at noon, No. 1 seed and regular-season champion Arkansas-Monticello opposite No. 8 seed Ouachita Baptist at 2 p.m., and No. 4 seed Southwestern Oklahoma State against No. 5 seed Henderson State at 4 p.m.
The ECU-SAU winner will battle the SOSU-ATU winner at 6 p.m. Thursday in the winners’ bracket while the two losers of those games will play at the same time on another field. The UAM-Ouachita Baptist winner will take on the SWOSU-HSU winner at 8 p.m., while the losers do battle on another field at the same time as well.
The double-elimination tournament continues on Friday and will wrap up on Saturday.
