Gameday: East Carolina Opens AAC Softball Championship Against Tulsa

Game 54: AAC Championship Quarterfinals
Information	May 9 vs. Tulsa \\\ Live Stats \\\ Video
Venue	Cougar Softball Stadium
Social Media	@ECUSoftball (Twitter) \\\ Instagram \\\ Facebook

HOUSTON, Texas – No. 7 seed East Carolina is set to challenge No. 2 seed Tulsa in the first round of the American Athletic Conference Softball Championship Thursday at the Cougar Softball Stadium in Houston.

Due to expected inclement weather, Thursday's quarterfinal schedule is as follows:

2019 AAC Softball Championship Quarterfinal Schedule
Game 1: No. 1 USF vs. No. 8 Memphis – 10:05 a.m. ET/9:05 a.m. CT
Game 2: No. 4 Wichita State vs. No. 5 UCF – 37 minutes following the conclusion of Game 1
Game 3: No. 2 Tulsa vs. No. 7 ECU - 37 minutes following the conclusion of Game 2
Game 4: No. 3 Houston vs. No. 6 Connecticut - 37 minutes following the conclusion of Game 3

The Pirates won their regular season finale at Houston 5-2 Sunday to enter championship week at 22-31 overall and 4-17 in AAC play. Ashleigh Inae leads the team with a .318 batting average and has scored a team-best 37 runs. She also ranks second on the club in hits (47) and doubles (9). Rachel McCollum sports a squad-high 41 RBI and a .513 slugging percentage.

In the circle, Erin Poepping is 14-19 with a 3.38 earned run average and 158 strikeouts in 207.1 innings pitched. Whitney Sanford has tossed 131.2 innings and enters the tournament at 8-12 with a 4.84 ERA.

Scouting Tulsa
Tulsa (35-17, 16-5 American) is the three-time defending tournament champion and finished second in the league standings just behind USF. The Golden Hurricane is led by senior and co AAC Player of the Year Julia Hollingsworth who led the conference this season with a .425 batting average. AAC Freshman of the Year Chenise Delce led the Tulsa pitching staff with a 1.58 ERA in 22 appearances this season, and went 7-0 in league play. She held opponents to a .199 batting average with 106 strikeouts in 123.2 innings of work. Additionally, she tallied a .300 batting average overall in 100 plate appearances, a mark that jumped to .358 in conference play.

All quarterfinal and semifinal contests of the American Softball Championship will be available live on the American Digital Network on Facebook (facebook.com/americandigitalnetworkplus).

Gameday: East Carolina Opens AAC Softball Championship Against Tulsa

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Players Mentioned

Ashleigh Inae

Rachel McCollum

Erin Poepping

Whitney Sanford

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