Tulsa Announces Upcoming 2018 Softball Schedule
12/29/2017 3:10:00 PM | Softball
2018 Schedule (.pdf)
TULSA, Okla. — Fourteen home games, including matchups against Oklahoma State and defending national champion Oklahoma, along with a 21-game American Athletic Conference slate highlight The University of Tulsa's softball schedule, unveiled by head coach John Bargfeldt on Friday.
"This was a tough year for scheduling, but we were able to schedule a lot of quality teams that will help prepare us to compete for a conference championship," Bargfeldt said. "We don't have very many mid-week games this year, but we're always excited to play both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Wherever we play, we have great crowds and it's a great atmosphere. We're fortunate to have them at our place this year."
In all, the schedule will see the Golden Hurricane play 10 games against teams that participated in the NCAA Tournament a season ago with three of those contests coming against Women's College World Series participants Oklahoma (April 18) and Texas A&M (Feb. 16-17).
TU will spend the first six weekends of the 2018 campaign at tournaments before the start of conference play March 23-25.
The 26th season of TU softball will begin Feb. 9-11 when the Golden Hurricane travel to Lake Charles, La., for games against McNeese State, Houston Baptist, Maryland-Eastern Shore and Virginia. The following weekend (Feb. 16-18), the Hurricane will take on Texas A&M, Iowa and Butler in College Station, Texas, for the Texas A&M Invitational.
Tulsa will play two more games against NCAA Tournament participants in UIC and Texas State along with Florida Atlantic and Columbia at the FAU "Strike-Out Cancer" Tournament in Boca Raton, Fla., Feb. 23-25. The team will follow that with a trip to Denton, Texas, and the Mean Green Invitational against Nicholls, UT Arlington and North Texas.
The first home game for the Hurricane will come on March 8 against Drake and after games against Green Bay, UMKC, Nebraska, UNI and Kansas, March 9-11, in Lawrence, Kan., the team will host two more Missouri Valley Conference opponents in Missouri State (March 13) and Illinois State (March 14) at Collins Family Softball Complex.
Four games in two days against Omaha, Iowa State and St. Francis (Pa.) in Fayetteville, Ark., March 16-17, wrap up Tulsa's tournament play before the start of conference action.
Tulsa will return home for a March 21 contest against Oklahoma State and then head back out on the road for the start of play in The American (March 23-25) against UCF.
Once conference play begins, the Hurricane will only have two more non-conference games, both coming against in-state foes. The first is an April 4 matchup at Oklahoma State in Stillwater, followed by the April 14 game against Oklahoma. It will be the first time the Sooners have come to Tulsa since 2013, when the No. 1 ranked Sooners took a 3-1 win over the Golden Hurricane.
Other home conference series include games against ECU (March 29-31), USF (April 13-15) and UConn (March 4-6), while TU will face Wichita State (April 6-8), Houston (April 20-22) and Memphis (April 27-29) on the road.
TU will look to win its third straight American Athletic Conference Tournament title as all eight teams in the league will meet in Tampa, Fla., May 10-12 for The American Championship.
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