Lady Cougars Travel to Florence for PBC Tournament
Columbus – After finishing the regular season with a record of 36-14, the Columbus State softball team will travel to Florence, SC this weekend to take part in the 2011 Peach Belt Conference Tournament hosted by Freedom Florence and Francis Marion University.
The 36 wins for CSU are the most since 2007. The Lady Cougars finished 12-8 in Peach Belt play and enter the tournament as the No. 3 seed.
The Saints of North Georgia who are currently ranked No.3 in the nation are the top seed in this year's tournament and will take on UNC Pembroke at 11:00 am on Friday morning. Armstrong Atlantic grabs the No. 2 seed after winning five of their last seven games heading into this weekend's tournament.
The No. 3 seed for Columbus State is the highest since 2007 when CSU won the tournament trophy as the No.1 seed. Flagler College also finished with a 12-8 mark in conference play but lost the tiebreaker for the No.3 spot by virtue of CSU's sweep of FC in St. Augustine earlier this season.
Columbus State is set to begin play at 1:30 pm on Friday afternoon against rival Georgia College. The Lady Cougars split with GC in Milledgeville on March 29th. The Bobcats won game one 2-1 in eight innings while CSU took the nightcap 6-2.
The Lady Cougars have an all-time record of 40-27 in conference tournament play.
CSU will play again at 6:30 pm Friday regardless of the outcome of game one. The second round matchup will be against Armstrong Atlantic or USC Aiken. Columbus State split the season series with AASU while dropping both games to USCA on the road in Aiken.
The double-elimination tournament gets underway with two rounds of games on Friday that will see a pair of teams go home. Play continues throughout the day on Saturday and culminates in the championship game on Sunday at 12:00 with an if necessary game to follow at 2:30. The winner of the PBC softball tournament receives an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
Fans unable to make the trip to Florence can follow all the action at the official tournament website here.
To view a complete bracket of this year's tournament please click here.
