Championship Central |
Tournament Bracket
INDIANAPOLIS – The 2019 Great Lakes Valley Conference Softball Championship Tournament bracket is set for this week's event, which will be held May 2-4 at the EastSide Centre in East Peoria, Ill. The University of Missouri-St. Louis and University of Indianapolis shared the regular season Conference title and will be the No. 1 and 2 seeds, respectively, entering the double-elimination postseason event. The No. 3 seed will be University of Southern Indiana, followed by No. 4 Maryville University, No. 5 University of Illinois Springfield, and No. 6 Truman State University. The seventh seed will be Drury University and No. 8 Lewis University rounds out the eight-team field.
Missouri-St. Louis (31-17, 20-6 GLVC) garnered the event’s No. 1 seed after winning a tiebreaker with Indianapolis. The squads split a doubleheader on March 17, but UMSL swept Southern Indiana while UIndy split its twinbill against the Screaming Eagles earlier this afternoon. UMSL will face No. 8 Lewis (22-28, 12-14) on Thursday, May 2 at 10 a.m. in its seventh-straight and 19th overall postseason berth. Conversely, the Flyers picked up the final seed in the postseason after losing a head-to-head tiebreaker against Drury for its first appearance since 2015 but league-best 32nd bid all-time. UMSL was swept by Lewis in their regular-season, league-opener March 16 2-1, 8-1.
Indianapolis (42-12, 20-6) earns its 30th overall and third consecutive trip to the GLVC tournament as the No. 2 seed and will play seventh-seeded Drury (34-21, 12-14) at 2 p.m. on Thursday. On April 1, the Panthers won the first game of the DH 10-1 in five innings, while the 13th-ranked Greyhounds bounced back for a 5-0 win in the nightcap. This will be just the third trip to the league’s championship tournament for Drury but first since back-to-back showings in 2011 and 2012.
Defending champion and 22nd-ranked Southern Indiana (33-17, 19-7) enters the tournament as the No. 3 seed and will battle No. 6 Truman State (28-15, 14-12) on Thursday at 2 p.m. USI swept Truman in Evansville with wins of 2-0 and 4-3. The Eagles are in their fifth-straight and 27th overall postseason competition, while the Bulldogs enter for the sixth time – every season they have been a GLVC member.
Fourth-seeded Maryville (32-17, 17-9) and fifth-seed Illinois Springfield (26-22, 15-11) head to East Peoria after UIS swept Maryville on March 31 at home, 7-6 and 5-0. The Saints earned their second-ever berth to the championship and first since 2016, while the Prairie Stars make their third consecutive appearance for a total of six. The two teams will meet on Thursday at 10 a.m.
The event will mark the 36th GLVC Softball Championship Tournament and 15th-straight time it has been held at the EastSide Centre.
An all-tournament pass can be purchased for $40 and admit the holder to all events over the three-day period. Single-day tickets are priced as follows: $15 for adults, $5 for students (with ID), seniors (65+) and youth (K-12), while all those under 5 will be admitted free.
For more information, log on to the championship homepage at GLVCsports.com/2019softball.