Gulls grab top seed, Conference tournament starts Tuesday
April 27, 2009
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Endicott College will be the top seed for The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC) softball championship, which begins with opening-round games on Monday, April 27. The Gulls (33-6 overall) earned the top seed by virtue of their 23-1 conference record. Endicott looks to start its quest for its seventh straight TCCC Championship when it plays in game two of a double-header on Tuesday afternoon in Beverly, Mass.
In addition to a regular-season doubleheader featuring Western New England (26-11 overall, 17-5 TCCC) at Gordon (9-24, 3-19) that will be played Monday, April 27 at 3:00 p.m. in order to complete the TCCC regular-season schedule, a pair of single-elimination opening round games will take place Monday. Monday's tournament action will include \#5 seed Salve Regina (22-17-1 overall, 16-7-1 TCCC) hosting \#8 seed Eastern Nazarene (16-18, 12-12), and \#6 seed University of New England (22-12-1, 13-10-1) hosting \#7 seed Nichols (15-22, 13-11). First pitch for both games is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. The winners of Monday's games will advance to the double-elimination phase of the tournament which begins Tuesday, April 28.
Western New England will be the \#2 seed regardless of its outcome in Monday's doubleheader against Gordon. With two losses, WNEC would finish the regular-season with a 17-7 TCCC record, which would result in a three-way tie along with Curry and Roger Williams. In head-to-head competition among those three teams, WNEC would win the tiebreaker for the \#2 seed with a 3-1 record, besting Curry (2-2) and RWU (1-3). Curry would claim the \#3 seed over Roger Williams once TCCC tiebreaker procedures are applied to that deadlock. The teams split their regular-season doubleheader, necessitating a comparison of records against other TCCC teams. Both Curry and Roger Williams were 0-2 against \#1 Endicott, but Curry compiled a 1-1 record against \#2 WNEC, while RWU was 0-2, earning the edge for Curry.
The winner of the Salve Regina/Eastern Nazarene contest will face \#4 seed Roger Williams (27-15, 17-7) at 2:30 p.m. on the campus of Endicott College. The winner of that game will face top-seeded Endicott 20 minutes following the conclusion of the first game.
The winner of the University of New England/Nichols matchup will face \#3 seed Curry (26-14,17-7) at 2:30 p.m. on the campus of Western New England College. The winner of that game will face \#2 seed WNEC 20 minutes following the conclusion of the first game.
Tournament action will continue through the week, culminating with the championship game on Saturday, May 2. The TCCC tournament champion will earn an automatic berth in the upcoming 2009 NCAA Division III Softball Championship.