ECC Softball Championship To Get Underway On Friday

West Babylon, N.Y.-The East Coast Conference Softball Championship will get underway on Friday, May 7 with two best-of-three semifinal series. Bridgeport, Molloy, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Mercy will compete in the new tournament format with an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Softball Championship on the line.

No. 1 Bridgeport (18-6, 18-6 ECC) and No. 2 Molloy (28-12, 16-6 ECC) will each host a series from May 7-8.

Bridgeport is the top seed after winning the program's first-ever ECC Regular Season Championship. The Purple Knights are still the league's defending champion, as well, having won the conference's last tournament in 2019.

No. 4 Mercy (16-12, 15-9 ECC) will travel to Connecticut to take on Bridgeport. The Mavericks are looking to win their first conference title since 2017.  

Mercy won the season series between the two schools, taking three of the four matchups. Three of the four games were tight with two of them going extra innings.

Molloy is back in the championship after a streak of 10 straight ECC Championship appearances was broken in 2019. The Lions have previously won the tournament five times, with the last coming in 2016.

Molloy will take on No. 3 St. Thomas Aquinas (22-10, 16-8 ECC). The Spartans make their second-straight appearance after snapping a 12-year drought in 2019. Unlike the other teams in the bracket, St. Thomas Aquinas has never won an ECC title.

Molloy had the upper hand in their head-to-head matchups against STAC during the regular season, sweeping all four games.

The winner of each semifinal series will advance to the final series, slated to be played on May 14 and 15 at the highest remaining seed.

All games during the championship will be broadcast live on the ECC Network website and the ECC Network app on Apple and Android mobile devices and on Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, and Roku streaming devices. To read Twitter updates throughout the tournament, follow @ECCSports. To see highlights during the games of the final series, follow @ECCSportsNet on Twitter. Tournament recaps, live stats, box scores, and all other pertinent tournament information will also be available on the championship central web page.

2021 East Coast Conference Softball Championship
Semifinal Series (Best-of-Three)
Friday, May 7
No. 4 Mercy at No. 1 Bridgeport - 2:30 p.m.
No. 3 St. Thomas Aquinas at No. 2 Molloy - 3:00 p.m.

Saturday, May 8
No. 4 Mercy at No. 1 Bridgeport - 12:00 p.m.
No. 3 St. Thomas Aquinas at No. 2 Molloy - 1:00 p.m.
No. 4 Mercy at No. 1 Bridgeport - 2:00 p.m. (if necessary)
No. 3 St. Thomas Aquinas at No. 2 Molloy - 3:00 p.m. (if necessary)

Final Series (Best-of-Three)
Friday, May 14/Saturday, May 15 at highest remaining seed