Tulsa-Memphis Noon Today in Semifinals of The American

Greenville, NC – The top-seeded Tulsa Golden Hurricane will take on No. 5-seed Memphis in the semifinals of The American Softball Championships at the ECU Softball Stadium on Friday at 12 noon CT. TU enters the weekend as the defending champions after shutting out their opponents in all three games last season on their home field.

The Hurricane (37-15 Overall, 15-3 The American) won their first regular season crown in The American and sixth in program history after winning six of seven series, including four series sweeps.

Memphis (29-26 Overall, 7-11 The American) advanced to the semifinals of the tournament with a 7-0 shutout over No. 4-seed USF for their first ever win in the conference tournament since joining the league in 2014.

The Hurricane and Tigers faced off in a three-game series at the Collins Family Softball Complex on May 31 and April 1 as Tulsa secured the series win with a 2-1 victory in the second game of a Saturday doubleheader. Memphis took game one of the doubleheader 4-0 while the Hurricane opened up the series with a 2-0 shutout in Friday's game one.

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GAME COVERAGE
Live Stats
Video - The American Digital Network

TULSA AS THE ONE-SEED...
The Hurricane are the top seed in the conference tournament for the first time since joining The American and first time since the 2014 season in Conference-USA. Tulsa was also the top seed in 2012, 2011, 2009 and 2006 under Head Coach John Bargfeldt, winning the conference tournament four times after winning the regular season crown.

DEFENDING TOURNAMENT CHAMPS...
Tulsa enters The American Softball Championship as the defending champions after winning the tournament on their home field at Collins Family Softball Complex last season as they shutout East Carolina, UCF and USF to secure the automatic bid. The Hurricane pitching was outstanding in the tournament as TU did not allow a runner past second base. In their first season in the league in 2015, Tulsa advanced to the championship game before falling to UCF and finishing as the runner-up.

ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS...
Pitcher of the Year - Emily Watson
Watson's Pitcher of the Year honors marks the first of its kind for Tulsa in The Ameri- can and first since Aimee Creger (C-USA, 2014). The junior posted a 10-1 mark in league play while ranking second nationally in strikeouts and shutouts along with top-10 marks in ERA, wins and strikeouts per 7 innings. Against Houston on April 13, the right-hander struck out 21 batters in the extra-innings win, ranking second-most in Division I this year.

Staff of the Year - Tulsa
Head Coach John Bargfeldt, Associate Head Coach Crissy Strimple and Assistant Coaches Kendra Cullum and Julana Shrum received Tulsa's first Coaching Staff of the Year Award since entering the conference and first since Bargfeldt was named C-USA Coach of the Year in 2014. As a team, the Hurricane led the league in team pitching and fielding while post- ing the fourth-highest batting average.

First-Team - Emily Watson, Maggie Withee
Emily Watson was unanimously named to The American First-Team for the first time in her career after leading the conference in wins, strikeouts, shutouts and opposing batting average. Maggie Withee received her second consecutive first-team all-conference honors as she was unanimously selected after posting the ninth-highest batting average in league play while committing just one error at third base all season. Withee was also named second-team all-conference in 2015 in addition to her C-USA All-Freshman team nod in 2014.

Second-Team - Haley Meinen
Haley Meinen was selected to the second-team as a pitcher/utility after holding conference opponents scoreless with a league-leading 0.00 ERA and a 4-0 record. Meinen also posted the 12th-highest batting average in the conference in her first season as a member of the Golden Hurricane

FULL WEEKLY NOTES

Tulsa-Memphis Noon Today in Semifinals of The American

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Players Mentioned

Haley Meinen

Emily Watson

Maggie Withee