Softball Prepares to Play Host to C-USA Championship
5/7/2008 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 7, 2008
HOUSTON-- The University of Houston softball team will play host to the Conference USA Championship May 8-10 at Cougar Softball Stadium.
The single-elimination championship will start Thursday at 9 a.m. The Cougars enter the tournament as the No. 1 seed for the second straight season.
UH enters the championship as the top seed and will play at 5:30 p.m. against the winner of the 9 a.m. game between No. 8 UAB and No. 9 Memphis.
Houston, back-to-back C-USA Regular Season Champions and defending Tournament Champions, ended the season with a 48-8 record and finished 21-2 in conference play.
UH's 21 league wins in rank second all-time in the league's single-season annals. DePaul set the C-USA record with 22 wins in 2003.
Houston is only the second program in C-USA history to record back-to-back 20-win conference seasons. DePaul was the last, doing so during 2002 and 2003 seasons.
The Cougars' 48 wins set a school single-season mark eclipsing the 2007 team's 44-win tally.
The Cougars enter the championship after sweeping UTEP, May 3-4, with scores of 5-0, 1-0 and 2-0.
The team's four seniors, Barbie Love, Courtney Spittler, Amanda Grote and Angel Shamblin were honored between the two Saturday games as part of senior day.
Junior Laurie Wagner hit her 17th home run in game one of the series, tying the UH single-season home run record with Kristen Glowacz who had 17 during the 2005 season.
The Houston-native also went 8-for-14 last week with a .571 batting average.
Senior Angel Shamblin's two wins over the weekend improved her 2008 record to 30-2, leaving her one win shy of eclipsing her own UH single-season record of 31, set in 2007. She has also recorded a school-record 16 shutouts this year, besting her 2007 mark of 12.
Both Wagner and Shamblin were honored this week with the C-USA weekly softball honors as hitter and pitcher of the week. The award was Wagner's second and Shamblin's seventh this season.
Following the 9am game Thursday, No. 2 UCF takes on No. 7 Southern Miss at noon and No. 3 Tulsa faces on No. 6 UTEP at 2:30 p.m. Thursday's action concludes with an 8pm matchup between No. 4 Marshall and No. 5 ECU.
There will be two semifinal games Friday, at 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., respectively. The Championship game is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Saturday and will be aired by CBS College Sports.
There will be live stats and streaming video available for all games by clicking the Softball Championship banner on the softball page of UHCougars.com.
Single-game tickets this weekend are $8 for adults and $5 for youths (ages 3 to high school). All-session tickets are priced at $20.00 for adults and $15 for youths. All C-USA students can get in free with their valid school ID.
Bracket:
Thursday, May 8
9am (8) UAB vs. (9) Memphis
Noon (2) UCF vs. (7) Southern Miss
2:30pm (3) Tulsa vs. (6) UTEP
5:30pm (1) Houston vs. Winner of 9am game
8pm (4) Marshall vs. (5) ECU
Friday, May 9
2pm 2/7 vs. 3/6
4:30pm 1/8or9 vs. 4/5
Saturday, May 10 - Championship Game
1:30pm Winner of 2pm game vs. Winner of 4:30pm game
