MOBILE, Ala. - The University of South Alabama softball team heads to Louisiana Lafayette for the 2011 Sun Belt Conference Championship (May 11-14) at Lamsom Park. The Jaguars earned the third seed in this year’s tournament and will face sixth seeded Louisiana-Monroe in its first round game Wednesday at 10 a.m.
 
The Jags’ (35-14, 14-10) took the No. 3 seed after concluding the regular season Saturday splitting its doubleheader with Troy at the Trojan Softball complex. USA fell 2-1 in the opener and rallied to come back and win 4-3 in game two.

First baseman Meghan Collins has paced the Jaguars at the plate, hitting .365 and had crossed the plate 31 times and recorded 46 hits – including a team-leading 12 doubles. In league play, she is batting .281 and has tallied 12 runs and 16 hits.

Freshman Haley Richards is batting .345 against conference opponents and has recorded 14 runs and 20 hits

USA third baseman Christin Crocker ranks first on the program’s single season homeruns list (10) and is also all-time leader in the program’s history in the category (20).

Left-hander Hannah Campbell (16-6) has a team-leading 2.43 ERA, while recording 113 strikeouts in 150 innings pitched. The freshman has recorded a program-high tying four saves and five shut outs this season.

Sophomore pitcher Morgan Druhan continues to lead the team with a 138 strikeouts in 113.2 innings of work.  

Louisiana-Monroe is 27-25 overall and 10-13 in SBC actions. The Jags’ won two out of three games against the Warhawks earlier this season in Monroe, La. ULM enters the tournament after being swept by No. 24 Louisiana Lafayette at home last weekend. ULL defeated the Warhawks 3-0 and 12-3 on day one and shutout ULM 5-0 in the series finale.

The Warhawks are led by Sun Belt Conference Preseason Player of the Year Brianna Love, who is batting .76 and has notched a team-leading 58 runs and 56 hits. She also leads the team in doubles (12), triples (4), home runs (15), and RBI (39). Jessica Olguin and Janel Salanoa are both batting over .300 for the Warhawks.

Tiffany Mills (13-5) paces ULM in the circle, who has a 2.81 ERA. She has struck out 104 batters in 170 innings pitched. Stephanie Routzon (8-7) has also contributed fanning 52 batters in 94 innings pitched.

South Alabama is making its fourth conference tournament in the program’s five year history. The top eight teams advance to the double-elimination conference tournament. ULL has won the last three conference championships and will look to defend its title this weekend. The Ragin’ Cajuns have won 10 out of the last 11 conference championships and captured the top seed after winning their 10th regular season title finishing with a 19-5 mark.

USA’s game will be followed by a 12:30 p.m. match up featuring No. 2 Florida Atlantic and No. 7 Western Kentucky. No. 4 Florida International and No. 5 Troy will play at 3 p.m. and host team ULL will finish up day one against Middle Tennessee at 5:30 p.m.

Fans unable to attend also can follow the Jaguars at the SBC Championship via the web. Live stats and the webcast can both be accessed at www.sunbeltsports.org. You can subscribe to the webcast for a one-time payment of $9.95. at https://www.nmnathletics.com/subs/Landing.dbml?db_oem_id=4100&TRACK_CROSS_DOMAIN=&gclid,

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com.  Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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-USA-