If East Texas Baptist is to make an 11th straight appearance in the American Southwest Conference Softball Championship Tournament next week, it will go down as the Tigers' toughest qualifying challenge to date.
Entering the final day of the regular season on Saturday, the Tigers (28-8, 15-7) find themselves needing help elsewhere around the ASC East Division to make the postseason. A killer four-game losing streak entering Saturday's season finale at home to No. 1-ranked Louisiana College has put ETBU in a tie with Mississippi College (27-9, 13-7) for the third and final playoff spot, and the Lady Choctaws own a head-to-head tiebreaker advantage over ETBU.
That means Friday's games between Mississippi College and LeTourneau in Longview, along with Saturday's MC at UT Tyler contests, have special meaning in the conference race as it goes down to the wire.
The Tigers, the preseason favorite to win the East after winning the division last season, have been ranked in the top four in the nation since the beginning of the season. But it's been a killer ASC East schedule this year, where the top three teams -- LC, ETBU and UT Tyler -- have all been ranked 1-2-3 in the country the last month, with MC having been ranked as high as ninth this season.
Mississippi College, however, is the only team in that bunch not to stump its toe in the conference schedule. The Choctaws are 0-6 against UT Tyler and Louisiana College entering Saturday, but MC went 3-1 against ETBU.
The Tigers have what has proven to be a crucial loss at LeTourneau, while LC was upset by UT Dallas earlier this month. The only losses in conference play by both UT Tyler and MC have come against either LC or ETBU.
The Patriots, who got a big sweep of Louisiana College Thursday and now control their own destiny for the division championship, lost three of its four games to ETBU but went 3-1 against LC and swept a doubleheader against MC earlier this season. LC swept MC but went 1-3 against Tyler, and the Lady Wildcats swept ETBU last weekend in Pineville, La. The records of the four teams against each other entering Saturday: ETBU is 4-6, UT Tyler is 6-4, LC is 7-3 and MC is 3-6.
If Mississippi College loses three of its last four games, the Tigers are in the playoffs no matter what happens at Taylor Field Saturday. If the Choctaws sweep LeTourneau but get swept at UT Tyler, ETBU must win at least one game Saturday. If MC sweeps LeTourneau Friday and splits with Tyler, ETBU must sweep Louisiana College. If the Choctaws go 4-0 on the weekend, ETBU is out of the playoffs.
In any event, the Tigers will honor their four seniors -- Porsha Harrison, Stacy Havner, Ayrika Henderson and Adrienne Meier -- on Senior Day Saturday at ETBU.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment