Southern Miss 2004 Softball Schedule Announced
9/17/2003 12:00:00 AM | Softball
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2004 Softball Schedule
Southern Miss 2004 Softball Schedule Announced
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Southern Miss Head Softball Coach Gay McNutt announced the 2004 Lady Eagle Softball schedule today.
The schedule features three spring tournaments and 44 other contests, 23 of which will be held at the Southern Miss Softball Complex. There also will be two fall tournaments, one hosted by Southern Miss and another in Houston, Texas.
"This is another tough schedule for our program," McNutt said. "But I firmly believe that it will help us get better. The teams we face in the spring tournaments will help prepare us for our conference play.
"We will face some outstanding competition, including Oklahoma, Florida State, Texas A&M and Oregon in the tournaments. These games will help us see where we stand as a program."
The three spring tournaments feature some of the top programs in the nation. The Lady Eagles compete against four 2003 NCAA regional teams -- Florida State, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Illinois -- along with Western Kentucky in the Sunshine State Tournament, hosted by FSU in early February. The other two tournaments, the Purple and Gold Challenge, hosted by LSU, and the Aggie III Tournament, hosted by Texas A&M also are on the slate. In the LSU tourney, Southern Miss faces 2003 NCAA regional participant LSU, Alcorn State, Louisiana Tech and Texas-San Antonio. In the Texas A&M event, the Lady Eagles face three regional teams from last season -- Texas A&M, Oregon and Penn State.
Home games this season include doubleheaders with Louisiana-Monroe, Nicholls State, McNeese State, Alabama State, Ole Miss and Louisiana Tech out of conference, with single non-conference games against Southeastern Louisiana, LSU and Mississippi State also at home.
League contests against Saint Louis, UAB and defending champion DePaul also grace the home part of the schedule.
Southern Miss travels to Southeastern Louisiana and LSU in non-conference road games, as well as facing Mississippi State in the Second Annual M&F Bank Fastpitch Classic in Ridgeland, Miss., on April 6. Conference USA road games include visits to USF, Houston, Charlotte, East Carolina and Louisville.
In all, the 2004 schedule includes eight teams that were ranked in the final USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 poll, as well as 11 NCAA regional participants.
In the fall, the Lady Eagles host a nine-team fall tournament that includes William Carey, Jones County JC, Pearl River CC, Gulf Coast CC, Southwest CC, West Alabama, Southeastern La., and Hinds JC.