West Babylon, N.Y. - With regular season play now complete, the bracket for the ECC Softball Championship is set. LIU Post, Bridgeport, St. Thomas Aquinas, and NYIT are the four teams that will compete with an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Softball Championship on the line.
The tournament gets started on Wednesday, May 1 with No. 1 LIU Post (44-8, 22-2 ECC) and No. 2 Bridgeport (30-14, 15-9 ECC), the hosting a single game. Then after a day off on Thursday, the rest of the tournament shifts to LIU Post on Friday, May 3 and Saturday, May 4.
LIU Post will host the weekend portion of the tournament after winning a second straight regular season championship. By earning a spot in the tournament, the Pioneers continue their remarkable run of 26 straight ECC Championship appearances.
The Pioneers open the tournament against their Northern Boulevard rival and No. 4 seed, NYIT (19-22, 11-13 ECC). After a year hiatus, the Bears are back in the ECC Championship for the fourth time in five seasons.
LIU Post swept the season series against NYIT, but three of the four games were decided by three runs or less.
Bridgeport continued their recent run of success by claiming the No. 2 seed. The Purple Knights have now made tournament appearances in three of the past four seasons.
Unlike the other teams in the field, St. Thomas Aquinas (24-19, 14-10 ECC) has not seen postseason play in quite some time. The Spartans are making their first ECC Championship appearance since 2006, snapping a 12 season postseason play drought.
Despite being a lower seed, St. Thomas Aquinas had the upper hand in their head-to-head matchups with Bridgeport during the regular season. The Spartans took three of the four regular season meetings, including a sweep on Bridgeport's home diamond where Wednesday's opener will take place.
Bridgeport, St. Thomas Aquinas, and NYIT are all in search of their first-ever ECC Softball Championship, while LIU Post attempts to win their 13th. The Pioneers have also advanced to the final of the tournament in each of the past six seasons and 20 times overall, while Bridgeport, STAC, and NYIT are all looking to play in the final for the first time (NYIT was a finalist in 2009 but did not get to play in the championship round due to rain).
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 also be available at the championship central web page.
2019 East Coast Conference Softball Championship
Wednesday, May 2 at highest seeds
Game One: No. 3 St. Thomas Aquinas at. No. 2 Bridgeport - 3:00 p.m.
Game Two: No. 4 NYIT vs. No. 1 LIU Post - 3:00 p.m.
Friday, May 3 at LIU Post
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 4 at LIU Post
Game Six: Game Three winner vs. Game Five winner -12:00 p.m.
Game Seven: if necessary - 30 minutes after completion of Game Six
