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HomeSportsAPSU Lady Govs Softball 2016 schedule includes Four Tournaments and 17 Home...

APSU Lady Govs Softball 2016 schedule includes Four Tournaments and 17 Home Games

APSU Sports Information

Austin Peay State University Lady Govs - APSUClarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University’s softball team will play in four in-season tournaments, while hosting 17 home games at Cheryl Holt Field, to highlight its 2016 schedule.

The Lady Govs open the season with four straight in-season tournaments, beginning at the Gardner-Webb Tournament (February 12th-14th), Western Kentucky Holiday Inn Hilltopper Classic (February 19th-21st), Troy Trojan Warrior Tournament (February 26th-28th) and the 13th Annual Georgia Softball Classic (March 4th-6th).

Austin Peay Softball 2016 Schedule released. (APSU Sports Information)
Austin Peay Softball 2016 Schedule released. (APSU Sports Information)

Opponents in those four tournaments will pose an early challenge for Austin Peay, with seven games coming against Georgia, Western Kentucky (twice), Troy, Dayton, Mercer and Murray State, who all finished in the Top 100 in the NCAA final RPI rankings in 2015.

“Some of those games early-on in those tournaments will test us and see what we’re made of,” Austin Peay coach Shane Showalter said. “But I’m excited for that part, because I want to see how we compete and not so much with just wins and losses.

“If we can go to those tournaments and compete the right way, then those tournaments will serve their purpose as far as us moving into conference play.”

Austin Peay will open the home schedule with its only non-conference games at Cheryl Holt Field, beginning with Arkansas-Pine Bluff (March 12th) and Middle Tennessee (March 16th).

The Lady Govs then open Ohio Valley Conference play with a seven-game road trip to SIU Edwardsville (March 19th-20th), Morehead State (March 25th) and Eastern Kentucky (March 26), before ending with a non-conference contest at Middle Tennessee (March 31st).

April will see the Lady Govs host OVC games versus Tennessee Martin (April 2nd-3rd), Belmont (April 9th), Tennessee State (April 10th), Jacksonville State (April 23) and Tennessee Tech (April 24th).

Conference road games in April are at Eastern Illinois (April 16th-17th) and Southeast Missouri (April 30th-May 1st), while the Lady Govs also play non-conference road games at Evansville (April 6th) and Samford (April 20th).

The Lady Govs close out the regular season on May 7th-8th, hosting Murray State.

“The girls are definitely hungry and their mind-set is different from the past three years that I’ve been here,” Showalter said. “Our kids believe that they can compete in our conference and post ourselves into a position to get into the post season.”

The top eight teams in the conference standings advance to the OVC softball championship tournament, held May 11th-14th, at the sight of the regular-season champion.

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