2021 Southland Conference softball tournament

2021 Southland Conference
softball tournament

Teams	7
Format	Double-elimination tournament
Finals site	North Oak Park Hammond, Louisiana
Champions	McNeese (7th title)
Winning coach	James Landreneau (3rd title)
MVP	Whitney Tate (McNeese)
Television	ESPN+

2021 Southland Conference softball standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Stephen F. Austin  ‍†‍‍	25	–	2		.926			35	–	12		.745
Central Arkansas  ‍‍‍	21	–	6		.778			37	–	19		.661
McNeese State  ‍‍‡‍^y	18	–	9		.667			35	–	26		.574
Northwestern State  ‍‍‍	16	–	11		.593			24	–	22		.522
Southeastern Louisiana  ‍‍‍	14	–	10		.583			28	–	23		.549
Houston Baptist  ‍‍‍	15	–	12		.556			22	–	17		.564
Sam Houston State  ‍‍‍	14	–	13		.519			19	–	31		.380
Abilene Christian  ‍‍‍	10	–	17		.370			14	–	33		.298
Incarnate Word  ‍‍‍	9	–	18		.333			16	–	27		.372
Texas A&M–Corpus Christi  ‍‍‍	8	–	16		.333			18	–	30		.375
Nicholls  ‍‍‍	5	–	22		.185			12	–	28		.300
Lamar  ‍‍‍	4	–	23		.148			8	–	43		.157
† – Conference champion ‡ – Tournament champion y – Invited to the NCAA tournament As of May 22, 2021[1] Rankings from NFCA

The 2021 Southland Conference tournament was held at North Oak Park in Hammond, Louisiana, from May 11 through 14, 2021.^[2] The tournament winner, McNeese, earned the Southland Conference's automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Division I softball tournament. All games were broadcast on ESPN+.^[3][4]

Format

The tournament was a 7 team double elimination format. The top seeded team, McNeese, received a bye in first round competition.

Seeds

Teams were seeded by record within the conference, with a tie–breaker system to seed teams with identical conference records. All seven teams in the conference qualified for the tournament. Tie–breaker procedures were not required.

Seed	School	Conference
1	Stephen F. Austin	25–2
2	Central Arkansas	21–6
3	McNeese	18–9
4	Northwestern State	16–11
5	Southeastern Louisiana	14–10
6	Houston Baptist	15–12
7	Sam Houston	14–13
8	Abilene Christian	10–17

• Incarnate Word, Nicholls, Lamar, and Texas A&M–Corpus Christi failed to qualify as members in the tournament field. New Orleans does not sponsor a softball team.

Source:^[5]

Tournament

Source:^[2]

Round	Game	Time*	Matchup	Score	Attendance	Notes	Television
First day – Tuesday, May 12, 2021
1	1	5:00 pm	No. 6 Houston Baptist vs. No. 7 Sam Houston State	3–4	172		ESPN+
	2	7:30 pm	No. 2 Southeastern Louisiana vs. No. 8 Abilene Christian	4–3	222
Second day – Thursday, May 13, 2021
2
	3	11:00 am	No. 3 McNeese State vs. No. 7 Sam Houston State	3–1	277		ESPN+
	4	1:30 pm	No. 4 Northwestern State vs No. 5 Southeastern Louisiana	7–4	343
	5	4:00 pm	No. 2 Central Arkansas vs. No. 3 McNeese State	5–6	335
6	7:20 pm	No. 1 Stephen F. Austin vs. No. 4 Northwestern State	4–1	335
Third day – Friday, May 14, 2021
3
	7	11:00 am	No. 5 Southeastern Louisiana vs. No. 2 Central Arkansas	1–2	275	Elimination game (Southeastern Louisiana)	ESPN+
	8	1:30 pm	No. 7 Sam Houston State vs. No. 4 Northwestern State	0–8^5	242	Elimination game (Sam Houston State)
	9	4:00 pm	No. 3 McNeese vs. No. 1 Stephen F. Austin	4–1	304
10	6:30 pm	No. 2 Central Arkansas vs. No. 4 Northwestern State	5–2	339	Elimination Game (Northwestern State)
Championship – Saturday, May 15, 2021
4
	11	11:00 pm	No. 1 Stephen F. Austin vs. No. 2 Central Arkansas	4–5	307	Elimination Game (Stephen F. Austin)	ESPN+
	12	1:50 pm	No. 2 Central Arkansas vs. No. 1 McNeese	0–1	345	McNeese tournament champion
*Game times in CDT. #-Rankings denote tournament seeding.

Awards and honors

Tournament MVP: Whitney Tate, McNeese

All-Tournament Teams: Source:^[3]

Whitney Tate, McNeese - MVP

Haylee Brinlee, McNeese

Jenna Edwards, McNeese

Kaylee Lopez, McNeese

Cori McCrary, McNeese

Toni Perrin, McNeese

Kayla Beaver, Central Arkansas

Mary Kate Brown, Central Arkansas

Cylla Hill, Central Arkansas

Kaylyn Shepherd, Central Arkansas

Kristen Whitehouse, Central Arkansas

Mackenzie Bennett, Stephen F. Austin

See also

2021 Southland Conference baseball tournament

References

1. "Southland Softball Standings". www.southland.org. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
2. "2021 Southland Softball Tournament". Southland Conference. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
3. Pam LaFosse (May 15, 2021). "McNeese vanquishes Southeastern to claim Southland Softball Tournament Championship". 2024 Crescent City Sports Enterprises LLC. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
4. Erik Hall (May 11, 2021). "2021 Southland Conference Softball Tournament bracket, schedule, game times". 2024 www.shreveporttimes.com. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
5. "2021 Southland Softball Tournament Field Finalized". Southland Conference. May 8, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2024.