East Carolina softball travels to No. 7 Texas for regional play

Pirates open NCAA play against Mountain West champ BYU

After having its bubble burst in two of the last three seasons, the East Carolina softball team left no doubt whether it would be included in this year’s NCAA tournament.

The Pirates (42-16) followed-up their first-ever regular season Conference USA championship with their first-ever CUSA tourney title when it beat Southern Miss, Houston and UCF over the weekend. As a result, Tracey Kee’s squad claimed the league’s automatic bid and was simply left with the question of what it’s match-up would be.

ECU, which is carrying an 11-game win streak into the tournament, will meet BYU on Thursday night at 6 p.m. (EST) at Red and Charline McCombs Field in Austin, TX.

The Cougars (43-11) captured their second straight regular season Mountain West Conference championship this season.

The second match-up on Thursday evening will feature host and No. 7 national seed Texas (42-13) with Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference foe Iona (28-24) around 8:30 p.m. The Longhorns received an at-large bid while the Gaels won their conference tournament to join the field.

The four-team regional is the only one of 16 that will begin play on Thursday, May 20 rather than Friday, May 21.

Check back with cusa-fans.com, as we will preview the Austin Regional on Wednesday.

We will also preview the Tuscaloosa and Gainesville Regionals that include CUSA members UAB and UCF.