2015 NCAA Auburn Regional Tournament Central

2015 NCAA Tournament Bracket

Game Notes

MOBILE, Ala. – No. 22 University of South Alabama softball takes part in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth year in a row this weekend when it travels to Auburn, Ala., for the 2014 NCAA Auburn Regional, hosted by the fourth-ranked Tigers and featuring Chattanooga and Tennessee Tech.
 
USA (38-11) faces Southern Conference regular season and tournament champion Chattanooga (35-13) on Friday at 3 p.m. to begin the double-elimination event, which will send one winner next weekend to take on the victor of the NCAA Lafayette Regional, which features the No. 11 Ragin' Cajuns, Baylor, Mississippi State and Weber State.
 
Southeastern Conference Tournament champion and host No. 4 Auburn (49-9) is scheduled to battle Tennessee Tech (32-26) on Friday at 5:30 p.m. Friday's winners will meet on Saturday at noon to determine one slot of the final, with a pair of elimination bouts following at 2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.
 
Links to live stats, live video streaming by SECNetwork+/WatchESPN throughout the weekend and ticket information can be found by accessing the Jaguar softball schedule page. In-game Twitter updates are provided for each South Alabama softball contest via the program's official handle, @USAJagsSoftball.
 
More information on the 2015 NCAA Auburn Regional can be found by accessing the "Tournament Central" link listed above.
 
Each team in this year's regional claimed its respective conference's tournament title. USA won its third Sun Belt Conference Tournament in four years last weekend when it bounced back from a 6-3 defeat to top-seed and No. 10 Louisiana-Lafayette with a 3-1 over Georgia State in an elimination bout before dropping the Ragin' Cajuns, 2-0, in the final.
 
USA has made four consecutive NCAA Regional final appearances - three as a result of gaining the SBC's automatic bid after a league tournament title - and owns a 7-6 all-time record at the event.
 
After defeating No. 6 Louisiana-Lafayette, 3-1, in the final at the 2012 SBC Tournament in Boca Raton, Fla., South Alabama, in only its sixth season, earned its first berth to the NCAA Tournament, traveling to the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional, hosted by Alabama. The Jaguars defeated Georgia Tech twice, 4-3 and 10-1 (5), to bookend a 5-2 loss to the Crimson Tide in the winners' bracket, but fell for a second time to the hosts in the final, 6-0.
 
South Alabama hosted the NCAA Mobile Regional in 2013, marking the program's first and only hosting of a regional. The Jaguars defeated Mississippi Valley State, 10-0 (6) behind former USA standout Hannah Campbell's perfect game before falling to 19th-ranked Florida State, 2-1. South Alabama responded with a pair of 3-0, elimination-game wins over Mississippi State and the Seminoles. A 7-6, eight-inning loss to FSU ended USA's run in the final.
 
USA returned to the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional final in 2014, winning back-to-back elimination games over No. 24 USC Upstate and SIU-Edwardsville after a tournament-opening loss to the Spartans. Former Tide standout Jackie Traina shut USA out, 3-0, in the final.
 
USA sophomore designated player Chloe Rathburn leads the Jaguars at the plate with a .381 batting average, 56 hits and 50 RBI. Rathburn has reached safely in her last 17 contests and has recorded a team-leading 16 multiple-RBI performances. The Mission, Viejo, Calif., native is two RBI away from the South Alabama single-season record of 52, set by former Jag standout Brittany Fowler in 2011.
 
Junior catcher Stephanie Pilkington ranks second on the club in batting average with a .352. Pilkington has also reached safely in 17 straight games. The Lake City, Fla., native owns a team-best .484 on-base percentage, aided by her club-high 31 walks.
 
Senior shortstop Kaitlyn Griffith was named Most Outstanding Player of the 2015 SBC Tournament after driving in five runs in four games, including three with a run scored in USA's 6-2 win over Louisiana-Monroe to open the event. Griffith homered in the contest for the 13th time this season, two more than any other Jaguar in program history has supplied in a year.
 
Freshman Kalen McGill was named first-team all-SBC last week and owns a 16-3 record with a team-low 1.97 ERA. McGill has also recorded four saves on the year. Classmate Devin Brown was credited with a complete-game shutout of ULL in the championship game of the 2015 SBC Tournament last week, earning a spot on the all-tournament team for her efforts. Brown has struck out a team-high 158 batters in 99 2/3 innings pitched.
 
Senior right-hander Farish Beard, a candidate for the Senior CLASS Award, is 11-4 with a 2.47 ERA and only 38 earned runs allowed and 99 strikeouts in 88 innings pitched. Beard pitched the Jaguars into the SBC Tournament final last Friday when she threw a one-hitter to Georgia State to lead USA to a 3-1, elimination-game victory.
 
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).