West Babylon, N.Y. - The East Coast Conference announced the bracket for its Softball Championship on Sunday.
The tournament, in which four teams will compete for the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Softball Championship, gets started on Wednesday, May 3 when No. 1 Molloy hosts No. 4 Queens and No. 3 Mercy visits No. 2 St. Thomas Aquinas for a single game.
Then after a day off on Thursday, the rest of the tournament shifts to the home field of Molloy, Bob Klein Field at the Rockville Centre Sports Complex, on Friday, May 5, and Saturday, May 6.
Molloy claimed at least a share of the ECC Regular Season Championship for the first time since 2017 to earn the tournament's top seed and weekend hosting duties. The Lions, who were runner-up in last year's tournament and are back in the bracket for the 13th time in 14 seasons, are in search of their sixth ECC title and first since 2016.
Queens will be Molloy's opening opponent. With D'Youville, who finished in a tie for third place, still ineligible for ECC and NCAA postseason play due to their provisional status as Division II members, Queens moves up from fifth place into the field of four. This is the Knights' first tournament berth since the 2015 season in which they won their third ECC title.
Molloy took three of four from Queens during their regular season matchups.
St. Thomas Aquinas, the only team in the field to never win an ECC Championship, is locked into the No. 2 seed in their fourth straight tournament appearance. With a doubleheader vs. Queens pushed to Monday due to the weekend's inclement weather, the Spartans are a sweep away from earning a share of the ECC Regular Season title for the second year in a row.
Opening up the tournament against STAC is Mercy. Back in the bracket for the third straight year, the Mavericks are looking to win their first ECC crown since the 2017 season.
The Spartans won the season series with the Mavericks, winning three of four contests.
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).
2023 East Coast Conference Softball Championship
Wednesday, May 3 at highest seeds
Game One: No. 4 Queens at. No. 1 Molloy – 3:00 p.m.
Game Two: No. 3 Mercy vs. No. 2 St. Thomas Aquinas – 3:30 p.m.
Friday, May 5 at Molloy
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 6 at Molloy
Game Six: Game Three winner vs. Game Five winner -12:00 p.m.
Game Seven: if necessary - 30 minutes after completion of Game Six
