GSC softball tournament kicks off today
By By Austin Bishop/EMG regional sports director
May 3, 2003
If fast-pitch softball is your thing, then the Northeast Recreation Complex will certainly be your place this weekend.
The 2003 Gulf South Conference Softball Tournament will open play with two games at 10 a.m. today and will climax with the championship game at noon Sunday.
Eight teams will combine to play 14 games in a 28-hour period, as the GSC makes its third consecutive trip to Meridian to decide the NCAA Division II league's champion.
Two Mississippi entries, Delta State University and Mississippi University for Women, highlight the eight-team, double-elimination event.
Today's 10 a.m. games feature West Florida taking on Central Arkansas, and Southern Arkansas facing Alabama-Huntsville. The noon contests see Arkansas-Monticello playing MUW and Valdosta State taking on DSU.
Second-round games, both in the winners and losers brackets, are set for 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., with two more elimination games scheduled for 6 p.m. The finals of the winners bracket will be played at 8 p.m.
Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children per day.
After a pair of 10 a.m. games on Sunday, the championship game will be played at noon. If the undefeated team loses the noon contest, then the if necessary title game is set for 2 p.m.
The GSC is broken into East and West divisions, with four teams from each side qualifying for the Tournament. The teams with the best records going in the event, not surprisingly, are the two No. 1 seeds.
The University of West Florida, which is trying to win its first GSC title since 1998, comes in with an overall record of 44-7 after winning the GSC East with a 22-6 mark.
The Cotton Blossoms of the University of Arkansas-Monticello won the GSC West with a league mark of 18-4 and an overall record of 41-8. The third team in the tournament with at least 40 is defending GSC champion Valdosta State. The Lady Blazers are 44-17 and 21-7.
But the road will not be easy for Valdosta. The Lady Blazers open tourney action against Delta State, arguably the league's hottest team. The Lady Statesmen go into today's noon contest against VSU on a 14-game winning streak.
Each team has it's strengths, but Arkansas-Monticello appears to be at the top of its game both on offense and defense.
UAM boasts of the No. 1 pitcher in the league in Lindsey Kight. She has 26 wins and has posted a whopping 277 strikeouts and has a era of 0.46 in 183.2 innings of work. As a team UAM is second in the league with an ERA of 1.23 and No. 1 in hitting with a batting average of .337. Monticello's Laura Lockaby leads the league with 17 homers, while Jodi Scott is tops with eight triples and Melissa Guillot is the league leader with 52 runs scored.
West Florida leads the league with a minuscule 0.91 ERA and has a pair of strong pitchers in Jackie Moore and Tanya Teague. Moore is 20-1 with a 0.67 ERA, while Teague is 15-5 with an ERA of 0.94.
