East Carolina Announces 2016 Softball Schedule
November 06, 2015 | Softball
GREENVILLE, N.C. - 17 home games, as well as a season-opening trip to Arizona State's Kajikawa Classic, help comprise the 2016 East Carolina softball schedule announced Friday by first-year head coach Courtney Oliver.
The slate features 13 games against nine teams that earned bids to NCAA regionals last season, including one squad that advanced to a super regional. ECU will also match up against six of its opponents for the first time.
The campaign officially kicks off the weekend of Feb. 12-14 when the Pirates head to Tempe, Ariz., for the aforementioned Kajikawa Classic. ECU will take on NCAA participant Arizona State as well as Virginia, Seattle, UC Riverside and Nevada during the three-day event. East Carolina's participation in the Kajikawa Classic marks the fourth time in the last six seasons that the Pirates will take part in a tournament hosted by the Sun Devils.
Following a midweek contest at Charlotte Feb. 17, East Carolina makes its home debut Feb. 19-21 welcoming Massachusetts, Bucknell and St. Francis (Pa.) to the ECU Softball Stadium for the Pirate Clash. The Bison will make their second trip to Greenville in as many seasons as they also competed in the same event in 2015.
The Pirates' non-conference schedule continues with 16-straight games in the state of Florida, beginning with the Citrus Classic II in Kissimmee, Fla., at the Disney Wide World of Sports complex Feb. 26-28. East Carolina will then take part in the Under Armour Showcase in Clearwater, which runs March 4-13 at the EC Moore Softball Complex. During the tournament, ECU will battle Villanova, Detroit, Sam Houston State, Central Michigan, Illinois, Northern Kentucky, Bowling Green, New Mexico State, Southern Illinois and IPFW. The Pirates will also play a single non-conference contest March 8 in Miami against Florida International.
After returning home from the Sunshine State, East Carolina will travel to Radford March 16 for a midweek doubleheader before visiting 2015 NCAA participant James Madison March 19-20 for a three-game series at Veterans Memorial Park. The Dukes won 48 games a year ago and hosted a regional for the first time in program history.
The following Tuesday, March 22, ECU will make the short trip over to Raleigh to take on 2015 NCAA super regional qualifier NC State in a single contest at Dail Softball Stadium before returning home for its American Athletic Conference opening series against USF. The Pirates will complete the short homestand March 29, hosting 2015 NCAA regional participant Longwood for a non-conference contest.
In addition to USF, East Carolina will also host Memphis (April 8-10) and Houston (April 22-24) during AAC play while traveling to Tulsa (April 1-3), UConn (April 15-17) and defending league champion UCF (May 6-8). Prior to the 2016 season, the league coaches voted to do away with the Saturday doubleheader format and instead institute a model in which teams will play single games Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
During the remainder of its non-conference slate, ECU faces off with in-state foes Campbell (April 5) and North Carolina (April 12) in Buies Creek and Chapel Hill while hosting UNCW April 20.
The 2016 American Athletic Conference Softball Championship will take place May 12-14 at the Collins Family Softball Complex in Tulsa, Okla. The winner of the tournament earns the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Softball Championship.
Oliver welcomes back 15 members of the 2015 squad for her first season at the helm of the program while incorporating four newcomers into the fold - including 2015 Gatorade North Carolina softball Player of the Year Mary Williams who played her prep softball at Cape Fear High School in Fayetteville.
