The postponed series finale between the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Southern University softball teams is back on, and UAPB faces a must-win situation.
The Lady Lions and Lady Jaguars will meet at 2 p.m. Saturday at Jackson State to play the final game of last weekend’s three-game softball series.
UAPB (14-27, 9-14 SWAC) must win this game to qualify for the SWAC softball tournament next week in Gulfport, Miss.
The Lady Lions won both games against Southern (21-22, 12-11) last weekend in Pine Bluff before the series finale was rained out. The game was tentatively scheduled to be made up, but only if it would affect the final SWAC standings.
That became reality on Thursday. Southern lost twice to Grambling State on Wednesday but won the finale of that three-game series, which was being made up from its originally scheduled dates, on Thursday.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
That left GSU with a 10-14 SWAC record, putting the Lady Tigers in fourth place in the SWAC West Division standings, half a game ahead of UAPB. The top four teams will go to the SWAC tournament.
The Lady Lions went 4-2 against GSU this season and thus control the tiebreaker, but they must defeat Southern on Saturday to finish tied with GSU and claim the final tournament spot away from the Lady Tigers.
UAPB enters Saturday’s game having won four straight games. After losing the first game of a series at Grambling, UAPB won the next two games to clinch the series before winning the first two games against Southern last weekend.
Southern had won three straight series before losing these past two to UAPB and Grambling. The Lady Jaguars have been swept once in conference play, which happened in late March at Texas Southern.
If the Lady Lions can finish the three-game sweep of Southern on Saturday, they would move on to face East Division champion Florida A&M in the opening round of the SWAC tournament at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday at the Gulfport Sportsplex.