SoCon Softball Championship Bracket Set

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Regular-season champion and tournament host UNCG has claimed the No. 1 seed in the Southern Conference Softball Championship, which will be contested at UNCG Softball Stadium in Greensboro, North Carolina, from May 11-14. Mercer enters the tournament as a fifth seed.

The double-elimination tournament features three games Wednesday, five Thursday, three Friday and the championship game Saturday, with a second game that day if necessary.

UNCG (37-16, 16-2 SoCon) downed Samford 4-2 in extra innings Sunday in a winner-take-all game for the regular-season title and top seed. After being no-hit by the Bulldogs' Jordyn Partain for the first seven innings, the Spartans finally broke through in the top of the eighth, plating two runs on four hits to go up by a couple of runs. Starting pitcher Morgan Scott worked a 1-2-3 eighth to close out the win and secure UNCG's fifth straight regular-season title and No. 1 seed.

With that top seed, the defending tournament champion Spartans earned a bye to Thursday's action at the tournament and will take on either No. 4 seed Furman or No. 5 seed Mercer, who kick off the tournament at 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday. UNCG won two of three from Furman from April 30 to May 1, with the Paladins ending the Spartans' 17-game winning streak in league games that dated back to last season. UNCG swept the Bears on March 26-27.

Furman (20-31, 8-10) closed out the regular season with a walk-off win Sunday, rallying from a run down in the seventh inning and getting an RBI single from Alex Rose Molinar in the eighth for a 4-3 win over ETSU to lock up the No. 4 seed. Mercer (16-39, 7-11) closed its regular season with nonconference games against Florida Gulf Coast and No. 10 Florida in Gainesville, Florida, after taking two of three from Chattanooga to wrap SoCon play last weekend.

The Bears took two of three from Furman on April 9-10, sweeping the Saturday doubleheader before the Paladins avoided the series sweep on Sunday.

Samford (31-17, 15-3), which fell just shy in its bid for its first SoCon regular-season title since 2016, claimed the No. 2 seed in the tournament and will face No. 7 seed ETSU (8-46, 4-14) on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. The Bulldogs dropped their series opener to UNCG on Saturday 7-3 but rebounded with a 2-0 win in game two, turning Sunday's series finale into a de facto regular-season title game. ETSU finished the regular season on a high note, sweeping Saturday's doubleheader with Furman for its first series win of the season.

Samford swept the regular-season series against ETSU on April 30 and May 1.

No. 3 seed Chattanooga (25-25, 9-9) and No. 6 seed Western Carolina (18-32, 4-14) will meet on Wednesday at 3 p.m. in a rematch of their final regular-season series. The Mocs swept the Catamounts over the weekend for their first series win since sweeping ETSU on April 2-3, while the Catamounts dropped their final six league games after winning a series against Mercer on April 15-16.

2022 SoCon Softball Championship

Greensboro, N.C.

Wednesday, May 11

Game 1: No. 4 Furman vs. No. 5 Mercer, 10 a.m.

Game 2: No. 2 Samford vs. No. 7 ETSU, 12:30 p.m.

Game 3: No. 3 Chattanooga vs. No. 6 Western Carolina, 3 p.m.

Thursday, May 12

Game 4: Game 2 loser vs. Game 3 loser, 10 a.m.

Game 5: No. 1 UNCG vs. Game 1 winner, 12:30 p.m.

Game 6: Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner, 3 p.m.

Game 7: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 loser, 5:30 p.m.

Game 8: Game 1 loser vs. Game 6 loser, 8 p.m.

Friday, May 13

Game 9: Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 12:30 p.m.

Game 10: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 3 p.m.

Game 11: Game 10 winner vs. Game 9 loser, 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 14

Game 12: Game 9 winner vs. Game 11 winner, 1 p.m.

Game 13 (if necessary): Game 12 winner vs. Game 12 loser, 3 p.m.

Next Event

Footer

Mercer University Athletics