GULFPORT, Miss. – Eight teams remain in contention for the SWAC Softball Championship as the Wildcats open their tournament run Tuesday at the Gulfport Sportsplex. After finishing with the third-best record in the East Division, Bethune-Cookman will face the West Division's No. 2 seed, Southern, with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m. EST.



Tuesday-Saturday
Opponent: Southern (32-13. 18-6)
Time: 2 p.m.
Location: Gulfport, Miss. | Gulfport Sportsplex
Watch: https://tv.swac.org/
Live Stats: https://bcuathletics.com/sidearmstats/softball/summary

Bethune-Cookman defeated Alabama A&M 12-0 in the regular season finale.

The Wildcats got off to a fast start in the second game of Saturday's double header, scoring three runs in the first. An Alabama A&M error with two outs allowed one run to score, and Kween Tauala would drive in two more on an RBI single to make it 3-0.

B-CU would blow the game open in the third. The Wildcats collected six hits in the inning and two walks while the Bulldogs committed one error. Bradley-Tse, Morrisey, Arianna Reynolds, and Jessica Alaan all picked up RBI in the frame as B-CU tallied six runs.

In the fourth, the Wildcats put three more runs on the board. One run scored on an error, while Alana Cypress drove in two more on a triple to extend the lead to 12-0.

Mia Gonzalez pitched five shutout innings for B-CU. She only allowed three hits and recorded three strikeouts.

The Southern Jaguars put together an excellent regular season, finishing just behind Prairie View A&M in the SWAC's West Division. They finished with the most wins overall of any team in the conference and went undefeated (17-0) at home. Most recently, the Jaguars swept the Panthers to knot the regular season series at three games apiece.

Southern boasts a powerful lineup that finished tied for first in the SWAC with 46 home runs. Sophomores Laila Clark and Abigail Mitchell tied for the team lead with nine, good for third-most in the conference. Clark also leads the team in RBI with 48. Besides those two, the Jaguars have nine players with at least one long ball this season.

On the pitching side, Southern finished third in the league with a 3.88 team ERA. They are also fourth in batting average allowed and third in walks. Sophomore Aaliyah Zabala was one of the top pitchers in the league. She led the team with 114.0 innings pitched and went 16-4 with a 1.84 ERA. She ended the season ranking second in ERA, second in strikeouts, second in batting average allowed, and first in shutouts.

Defense is a bit of a weakness for Southern as they rank tenth in the SWAC in fielding percentage and finished with the third-most errors.




The Wildcats and Jaguars have faced just three times during their history. Two of those meetings were in the 2022 SWAC Tourmament in which B-CU went 1-1 against them.

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