Upstate Set to Open A-Sun Softball Championship Thursday
5/11/2016 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Tournament Notes (.pdf) | Tournament Central
Spartanburg, S.C. – The USC Upstate softball team will open play in the 2016 A-Sun Softball Championship on Thursday, May 12 at 10 a.m. in Fort Myers, Fla., and it will do so as the No. 2 seed in the tournament. The Spartans will attempt to win their third tournament championship in the last four seasons and earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Upstate will face the winner of Wednesday's opening round game between third-seeded Stetson and No. 6 seed Jacksonville.
For the second straight year, the A-Sun Softball Championship is being hosted by Florida Gulf Coast at the FGCU Softball Complex May 11-14. The Spartans enter postseason play as the No. 2 seed. Upstate finished the regular season with a 39-13 overall record and 11-6 mark in the conference after taking two out of three last weekend at North Florida.
The Spartans were well-represented among the A-Sun postseason honorees on Tuesday as they had five players earn recognition. Upstate had four players named First Team All-Conference and three to the All-Freshman Team. Three of those players were also a unanimous selection on their respective teams. Holly McKinnon was a unanimous selection on First Team All-Conference as a pitcher, and was joined on the First Team by Megan Obier (infield), Brittany Case (outfield) and Ryan Rector (outfield). Obier and Case were also unanimous selections on the All-Freshman Team along with Ansley Gilstrap.
On the academic side, Rector and Lexi Shubert were selected to the A-Sun Academic All-Conference Team.
As one of the top-two seeds in the tournament, the Spartans own a first round bye and will open play in the A-Sun Softball Championship on Thursday. The tournament field is made up of #1 Florida Gulf Coast, #2 USC Upstate, #3 Stetson, #4 Kennesaw State, #5 Lipscomb and #6 Jacksonville. The Spartans are 9-5 this season against the tournament teams with three-game sweeps over Jacksonville and Kennesaw State.
Fans can follow the action on www.upstatespartans.com via live stats. Every game of the A-Sun Softball Championship is being streamed on ESPN3. Updates will also be posted on the Upstate softball Twitter page (@UpstateSoftball).
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