Crunch time has arrived for the Arkansas Tech Golden Suns as they prepare to enter the final two Gulf South Conference series that will decide their fate for a post-season invitation.

And it begins in Arkadelphia on Wednesday at 2 p.m. for the start of a
3-game series with Henderson State.

The two clubs will play two games on that day and will then get together for a single game at 3 o'clock on Thursday.

Both clubs are still very much in the running for one of the four invitations from the West Division to the GSC softball championship tournament in Tupelo, Miss., next month.

But so are the other six teams in the league.

Only Delta State (33-22, 18-4 Gulf South) is virtually assured of a post-season bid. For everyone else, the race has become a jumbled mess. And the West Division likely won't have its 4-team allotment settled until the last weekend in April.

Neither Tech nor Henderson State fared very well in last week's gigantic league Crossover in Decatur, Ala., where every team in the West played every team in the East and all games counted as conference games.

Tech (25-17, 8-14 Gulf South) went 2-5 with wins over Valdosta State and West Georgia. Henderson State (20-21, 10-9 Gulf South) went 1-6, winning only over West Georgia.

Delta State and Southern Arkansas were the only successful teams from the West over the four-day period. The Lady Statesmen went 5-2 and Southern was 4-3.

As for the others, UAM was 1-6, UCA 2-5, Christian Brothers 2-5 and Ouachita 1-6.

West Florida, the No. 1 team in the nation, was the only team to go through the entire 4 days untouched at 8-0. Alabama-Huntsville went 7-1, North Alabama and Lincoln Memorial were both 6-2, while West Alabama, West Georgia and Valdosta State broke even at 4-4.

Tech now heads into this final 2-series finale against Henderson State (on Wednesday) and UCA (15-24, 7-15 Gulf South) on April 29-30 lodged in fifth place in the West, but only one game out of fourth behind UAM (29-19, 9-13 Gulf South).

Henderson State is in second place and must still face a trip to Monticello before closing out at home against Ouachita (28-22, 7-15 Gulf South).

Southern Arkansas (26-21, 11-11 Gulf South) is now in third place with games remaining at home against UCA and UAM.

In games on Friday and Saturday, UCA is at Southern and Delta State is at Ouachita. Henderson State will be at UAM for a Saturday-Sunday series.

Back to News