A-Sun softball tournament underway at Draper Diamond this week

Atlantic Sun Conference | 

The 2013 Atlantic Sun Conference Softball Championship began Wednesday as North Florida, USC Upstate, FGCU, Lipscomb, Kennesaw State and Stetson have staked their claims to the tournament in Nashville, Tenn.

Softball_ASUN

A-Sun Softball Weekly Notes (#ASunSB):

  • The six A-Sun Championship teams have a combined 16 wins vs. 2012 NCAA Tournament teams this season.
  • The Atlantic Sun ranks No. 7 in conference RPI in the country. The average RPI of the six A-Sun Championship teams is 56.33 this year. This marks one of the best seasons in A-Sun Softball with five teams currently in the top-55 in RPI. The average RPI of team in the A-Sun Championship in the 2010 was 79.83, in the 2011 Championship 87.67 and in the 2012 A-Sun Championship was 84.67
  • The 2008 A-Sun Championship was the last time that a No. 1 seed did not win the A-Sun title when fifth-seeded Campbell won the championship crown.
  • Lipscomb and FGCU are the only teams in the A-Sun Championship that have won the championship crown in the last five years.
  • The Ospreys are making their first ever A-Sun Championship appearance after winning the regular season title. UNF’s Kaylie Wallace has an ERA of 1.47; the best in the conference.
  • Both North Florida (.755) and USC Upstate (.804) registered winning percentages this season that rank in the top-ten in the A-Sun record books.
  • The Eagles are the returning A-Sun Champion and will look to become the sixth team to win back-to-back A-Sun Championships. Last season, the Eagles came into the championship a No. 1 seed as the 2012 regular season champions.
  • The Owls and Bisons have faced each other twice in the A-Sun Championship in the last three years in which the teams have split the match-up with one win a piece.
  • FGCU ranks ninth in the country in triples per game (.33) and have hit a total of 16 triples this season. The Eagles have four of the top-five career active leaders in triples with Kelsey Carpenter leading the way with ten triples in her career.
  • The Bisons have been strong offensively in terms of stolen bases as the team has collected a total of 106 stolen bases this season. Freshman Brittany Elmore leads the league with 33 stolen bases.
  • The Spartans boast the best RPI in the A-Sun at No. 46. Upstate leads the league in batting average (.333), slugging percentage (.520), runs scored (294) and fielding percentage (.982). The Spartans hold the best fielding percentage in the country.
  • The Owls finished the regular season on a high note as they won their last five conference match-ups while also adding wins vs. Georgia Tech and UAB. Both Georgia Tech and UAB made appearances in the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
  • Stetson heads into the A-Sun Championship after defeating seven of its last ten conference opponents. In the 2011 Championship, the Hatters came in as the No. 6 seed and defeated the third-seeded Upstate and the second-seeded KSU in their first two games of the championship.