Bracket Set For 2022 ECC Softball Championship
Purple Knights Open Play By Hosting Molloy At 3 PM On Wednesday
West Babylon, N.Y. - The East Coast Conference announced the bracket for its Softball Championship on Sunday evening. St. Thomas Aquinas, Bridgeport, Molloy, and Mercy are the four teams that will compete for the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Softball Championship.
The tournament gets started on Wednesday, May 4 when the top two seeds, No. 1 St. Thomas Aquinas (27-19, 19-5 ECC) and No. 2 Bridgeport (33-14, 17-7 ECC), host a single game at their home field. Then after a day off on Thursday, the rest of the tournament shifts to Spartan Field on the campus of St. Thomas Aquinas on Friday, May 6, and Saturday, May 7.
The Spartans will host the weekend portion of the tournament after winning their first-ever ECC regular season championship. St. Thomas Aquinas, who has never won an ECC title, opens their third straight appearance in the bracket against No. 4 Mercy (11-36, 9-15 ECC).
With D'Youville, who finished in third place, still ineligible for ECC and NCAA postseason play due to their provisional status as Division II members, Mercy moves up from fifth place into the field of four and a second straight tournament appearance.
The Spartans and the Mavericks, who last won an ECC title in 2017, split their four previous matchups this season.
Bridgeport enters their final ECC Championship as two-time defending champions. The Purple Knights begin their postseason run against No. 3 Molloy (22-31, 10-14 ECC).
The Lions are back in the bracket for the 12th time over the past 13 seasons. Five times in that span, Molloy was the last team standing but the Lions haven't won it all since the 2016 season.
As with the other first round matchup, Bridgeport and Molloy split their four-game season series.
All games during the championship will be broadcast live on the ECC Network website and the ECC Network app on Apple and Android mobile devices and on Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, and Roku streaming devices. To read Twitter updates throughout the tournament, follow @ECCSports. To see highlights during the games on Friday and Saturday, follow @ECCSportsNet on Twitter. Tournament recaps, live stats, box scores, and all other pertinent tournament information will be available at the championship central website (link below).
2022 East Coast Conference Softball Championship
Wednesday, May 4 at highest seeds
Game One: No. 3 Molloy at. No. 2 Bridgeport - 3:00 p.m.
Game Two: No. 4 Mercy vs. No. 1 St. Thomas Aquinas - 3:00 p.m.
Friday, May 6 at St. Thomas Aquinas
Game Three: Game One winner vs. Game Two winner - 10:00 a.m.
Game Four: Game One loser vs. Game Two loser - 12:30 p.m.
Game Five: Game Three loser vs. Game Four winner - 3:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 7 at St. Thomas Aquinas
Game Six: Game Three winner vs. Game Five winner -12:00 p.m.
Game Seven: if necessary - 30 minutes after completion of Game Six