ROCK HILL, SC— The seeds for the 2011 Big South Conference Tournament presented by Musco Lighting and Winthrop will be the seventh seed, the league office announced Sunday afternoon.
The Eagles finished league play with a 5-13 record and finished the regular season 15-34 overall and will face second-seeded Liberty on Thursday, May 12 at 12:30 p.m. on the opening day of the tournament. The game will be played on Terry Field.
Liberty took the regular season series against the Eagles at Terry Field with 13-6 and 7-2 victories. Winthrop won the second game of a double-header on April 2 against the Flames, 7-4.
It is a rematch of game 11 of the 2010 championship tournament in which the Eagles defeated Liberty 4-0 for the right to face Radford in the championship game.
Winthrop and Liberty have met 10 times in the Big South Tournament with each winning five times. Winthrop won the last two meetings in 2010. Of the 10 meetings, the games have gone to extra innings twice with Liberty winning in 11 innings in 2001 and Winthrop in 2010 in nine innings.
The two teams have also faced each other twice in the championship game with each winning once.
If the Eagles are to make a run to the championship game like they did in 2010, they will have to end a six-game losing streak and a streak of 10 losses in the last 11 games. Winthrop has been to the championship game of the tournament in three of the past four seasons and captured tournament titles in 2007 and 2008. Winthrop is tied with Coastal Carolina for the most championship game appearances in league history with 11 and has the most titles all-time with 6.
Sophomore Chelsey Schoenfeldt finished the regular season with a league-best .371 average and finished third in the league with 12 doubles. She finished league games with a .469 average, which also led the Big South.
Megan Chapman finished the regular season with the second best batting average among shortstops and led all players at short in assists.
This is the 12th time that Winthrop has hosted the Big South Conference Championship Tournament. The Eagles are 18-15 all-time when hosting the conference tournament. Winthrop won the championship in its own town in 1991 and 2008 and was runner-up in 2002 and 2005.
Radford is the top seed for the third straight season and is the two-time defending champion. Liberty is the second seed while Presbyterian College earned the three seed followed by Charleston Southern at four, Coastal Carolina at five and Gardner-Webb is the six-seed.
Thursday, May 12
Game 1: #3 Presbyterian College vs. #6 Gardner-Webb, 10:00am - Terry Field
Game 2: #2 Liberty vs. #7 Winthrop, 12:30pm - Terry Field
Game 3: #4 Charleston Southern vs. #5 Coastal Carolina, 3:00pm - Terry Field
Game 4: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2 - 5:30pm - Terry Field
Game 5: #1 Radford vs. Winner Game 3 - 8:00pm - Terry Field
Game 6: Loser Game 3 vs. Lowest Losing Seed Game 1 or 2, 8:00pm - Field C
Friday, May 13
Game 7: Loser Game 4 vs. Highest Losing Seed Game 1 or 2, 10:00am - Field TBA by Seeding *
Game 8: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 5, 10:00am - Field TBA by Seeding *
Game 9: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 7, 12:30pm - Terry Field
Game 10: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 8, 3:00pm - Terry Field
Game 11: TBA vs. TBA (if necessary), 5:30pm - Terry Field **
Game 12: TBA vs. TBA (if necessary), 8:00pm - Terry Field **
Saturday, May 14
Championship Game: TBA vs. TBA, 12:00pm (TV: ESPN3.com) | Live Stats | Live Video | Recap | Box Score
* - game involving highest seed will play on Terry Field
** - Game 11 will be necessary if the winner of Game 7 also wins Game 9. Game 12 will be necessary if the winner of Game 8 also wins Game 10. If both games are played, they will both be played on Friday. If both bracket winners are undefeated, there will be no Friday night games and the Championship game would be Game 11 on Saturday at 12:00pm.
