The Utah Valley University softball team begins its quest for its second-straight WAC tournament championship at the 2015 WAC Softball Tournament that runs Thursday to Saturday, May 7-9, at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The fifth-seeded Wolverines open play against the fourth-seeded Seattle U Redhawks on Thursday at 11 a.m. MT.
"We are excited to get down there and we'll be looking to repeat what we did last year," head coach Nikki Palmer said. "We've got a lot of work to do, but we'll be ready."
Each game of the tournament will be streamed live on the WAC Digital Network and can be viewed by visiting the WAC's website. Live stats will also be available for each game at WAC Live Stats site.
The Wolverines finished their regular season with a 16-39 record after falling to neighboring rival BYU, 8-0, on Tuesday in Provo. UVU also went 3-12 in WAC play to finish in sixth place in the conference standings. Utah Valley earned the five seed for the tournament, however, as Grand Canyon is ineligible for postseason play.
UVU and SU met up a month ago for a three-game league series in Orem, and the Redhawks took the series by winning two out of the three ballgames. Seattle took the opener, 9-6, on Friday before the Wolverines responded to win the first game of a Saturday doubleheader by a score of 4-2. The Redhawks then jumped out to a big lead in the finale and managed to fight off a late comeback attempt by UVU to take the contest, 11-8.
The winner of Thursday morning's opening game advances on to play the top seed and host New Mexico State Aggies later that day at 4 p.m., while the loser drops to an elimination game against either No. 2 Missouri-Kansas City or No. 3 CSU Bakersfield at 6:30 p.m. The tournament then continues Friday, and the championship game will be played Saturday at 1 p.m.
Utah Valley enters the tournament having dropped its last 10 ballgames after falling to BYU on Tuesday and getting beat by No. 5 Oklahoma twice over the weekend in Norman. The 2014 Wolverines, who went on to win last year's conference tournament, entered play at the 2014 WAC Championships having dropped seven-straight contests before getting hot when it mattered the most as it reeled off four-straight victories to earn the school's first-ever bid for a team sport into the NCAA Tournament.
Brianna Gatlin leads UVU on the season offensively with a .336 average, while Bailey Moore paces the team in the circle with a 10-19 record and a 5.33 ERA. Brittney Vansway led the way during conference-only play by hitting an even .400 to lead the team in that category.
About Seattle U
The Redhawks enter Thursday's matchup with UVU with a 15-34 overall record and a 4-10 clip in WAC play. SU dropped two out of three to Bakersfield at home to end its regular season two week's ago. Prior to that, Seattle lost both games of a weather-shortened two-game series at UMKC.
Rose Saenz leads SU with a .341 average, while Paige Bouska and Bubba Morrow are right behind her with respective batting averages of .336 and .326. Morrow also leads the team in the power numbers with seven home runs and 30 RBIs. Mandie Sugita paces the pitching staff with an 8-12 record and a 4.48 ERA.
Thursday's ballgame against Seattle U will mark the 22nd contest between the Wolverines and Redhawks. SU leads the all-time series, 14-7, after taking four of the last six meeting's between the two foes.
James Warnick is an assistant sports information director at Utah Valley University. For more information about Wolverine athletics, visit WolverineGreen.com.