ROCK HILL, S.C. — Carson-Newman received the No. 2 seed and will face seventh-seeded Lincoln Memorial in the first round of the 2010 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Softball Tournament, league officials announced Sunday.
The Lady Eagles and Railsplitters will square off on Thursday at 2 p.m. at Wingate University in Wingate, N.C.
C-N (11-5 SAC, 33-8 overall) is the tournament's two-time defending champions and have won a league-best nine tournament titles. Lincoln Memorial went 5-11 in conference play and 27-19 overall.
Lenoir-Rhyne University, which won its sixth regular-season conference title, will be the top seed.
The Bears (15-1 SAC, 44-6 overall) are ranked ninth nationally in the most recent National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division II poll. Lenoir-Rhyne has won four Food Lion SAC Tournament titles, with the most recent in 2007.
Lenoir-Rhyne will face eighth-seed Catawba College on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
Catawba (5-11 SAC, 29-22 overall) finished in a four-way tie for sixth place in the conference standings, but earned the eighth seed in the tournament after conference officials broke the tie.
Newberry College and Mars Hill College each went 9-7 in conference play to tie for third in the conference standings. Mars Hill and Newberry split their regular-season meeting. Newberry earned the third seed by virtue of its split against top-seed Lenoir-Rhyne, while Mars Hill lost both meetings against the Bears.
Newberry (9-7 SAC 29-11 overall), will face sixth-seed Tusculum College (5-11, 14-24 overall) at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday.
Tusculum, Lincoln Memorial, Catawba and Brevard College tied for sixth place in the final conference standings. In the four-way tie, Tusculum went 4-2 against LMU, Catawba and Brevard; LMU went 4-2 against Tusculum, Catawba and Brevard; Brevard went 3-3 against Tusculum, LMU and Catawba; Catawba went 1-5 against Tusculum, LMU and Brevard.
LMU and Tusculum, with 4-2 records against all tied teams and 1-1 against each other, were broken out and that tie was broken by going head-to-head against the top seed and working down. Both teams were 0-2 against top-seed Lenoir-Rhyne. Tusculum split with second-seed Carson-Newman, while LMU was 0-2, giving the Pioneers the sixth seed.
LMU, Catawba and Brevard remained in a three-way tie. LMU earned the seventh seed by going 3-1 against Catawba and Brevard.
Catawba and Brevard remained tied for the final tournament spot. They split with each other, were 0-2 against both Lenoir-Rhyne and Carson-Newman, and split with third-seed Newberry. Catawba went 1-1 against fourth-seed Mars Hill, while Brevard was 0-2 against Mars Hill, giving Catawba the eighth seed.
The tournament kicks off Thursday with fourth-seed Mars Hill (9-7 SAC, 26-13 overall) facing tournament host and fifth-seed Wingate University (8-8 SAC, 33-13 overall) on Thursday at 9 a.m.
Tournament play continues with six games on Friday. Two games on Friday will be played at Forest Hills High School.
Three more games are set for Saturday. The championship game will be played Sunday at Wingate at 1 p.m., with a second game, if necessary, to follow.
The tournament champion will receive an automatic bid into the NCAA Division II Softball Championship.
All-Tournament tickets will be available at the gate for $15 for adults and $7 for students and children. Daily ticket prices are $6 for adults and $3 for students and children.
Wingate University will provide live stats and a live pay-per-view webcast for all games played at Wingate University.
Food Lion is the title sponsor for all South Atlantic Conference championships.
