The eight-team field has been determined for this week’s Lone Star Conference Softball Championship, which will be played Friday and Saturday at Pioneer Field on the campus of Texas Woman’s in Denton, Texas.
The top eight teams qualified for the single-elimination event. The field includes Angelo State, Texas Woman’s, Tarleton State, West Texas A&M, Abilene Christian, Midwestern State, Incarnate Word, and Cameron.
ASU is the top seed after winning the LSC Championship for the sixth time by virtue of a 23-4 regular season conference record. TWU is No. 2, followed by Tarleton, WTAMU, ACU, MSU, UIW and CU.
Tournament play will begin on Friday, April 27, with four quarterfinal games scheduled to be played at 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m., 4:30 p.m., and 7:00 p.m.
On Saturday, April 28, two semifinal games will be played at 12 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. The conference championship will be decided at 6 p.m.
All games will be played at Pioneer Field, located between the TWU Golf Course and the University Chancellor’s residence on the northeast side of the TWU campus.
Daily ticket prices will be $8.00 for adults and $5.00 for students. Children five and under will be admitted free of charge. Tickets will go on sale 90 minutes before the first game of each day.
For fans that can’t make it out to the games, all of the tournament action will be broadcast online via a free live webcast. The webcast will include both video and audio with viewers needing only a computer with a high-speed DSL or cable modem connection to the internet. The webcasts can be viewed at lonestarconference.org. Saturday night’s championship game will also be carried on foxsportssouthwest.com.
LSC SOFTBALL
The 2012 LSC softball season wrapped up last week. This season, teams played a single round-robin schedule with a three-game series against every other team. Each series consists of a doubleheader one day and single 7-inning game the other day.
The overall LSC Champion was Angelo State with a 23-4 league record for the best winning percentage in regular-season conference games, while the winner of the postseason championship will be recognized as LSC Tournament Champion and receive the league’s automatic qualification into the NCAA postseason.
LSC softball teams are 272-218 overall this season. In the NCAA South Central Region, the LSC is currently 99-62 overall including 59-29 combined versus Heartland Conference teams, 17-11 opposed to the Great American Conference, 20-14 against the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) and 3-8 versus independent teams.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
HITTER
Christina Roosmalen, Midwestern State University, JR, First Baseman, Plano, Texas, Plano West HS
Roosmalen blistered the ball at .647 pace and a 1.118 slugging percentage in her five games last week to extend her current hitting streak to eight games. The junior transfer from Southern Mississippi was 11-for-17 at the dish with two doubles and two home runs while driving in eight runs. The Plano native kicked off her week with a 4-for-4 effort with a homer, a double and three RBIs in Game 1 Wednesday at Central Oklahoma then added a second bomb in Game 2. Roosmalen drove in two more runs in opener against Abilene Christian before logging multiple-hit games two more times on Saturday against the Wildcats.
PITCHER
Larisa Garcia, Texas Woman’s University, JR, P, New Braunfels, Texas, New Braunfels HS
Garcia pitched in all three TWU wins on the road last week to help the team to two series wins and secure the number two seed in LSC Championship. She pitched 2.1 innings in relief against Tarleton State to recorded her LSC best eighth save of the season and the series win against the TexAnns. Garcia also started in the decisive game three against West Texas A&M and allowed just one earned run for her 12th win of the season. She shutout the Lady Buffs’ offense that scored 34 runs in the previous three games for six innings. Garcia also tossed 4.2 innings in a 9-6 win against WT and took a no decision. On the season she leads the team in ERA (2.90) and strikeouts (125). Garcia is currently ranked third in NCAA DII in saves.