Link to GSC Softball Tournament Central

JACKSON, Tenn. - The Union University softball team has earned the No. 7 seed in the 2023 Gulf South Conference Softball Championships, May 3-6 at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama. This is the second straight trip to the GSC Softball Championships and the fourth trip for Union since becoming postseason-eligible in 2015 after moving from NAIA to the NCAA. 

Union will face 2-seed Mississippi College at 12 p.m. Wednesday, May 3. Win or lose, the team will play again Thursday, May 4.

Union played Mississippi College at home back on April 7-8. Union knocked off then No. 19 Mississippi College 4-0 in the series opener and then dropped the doubleheader the next day, 11-1 and 11-8. 

Union finished the regular season with a 24-24 overall record and a 13-15 GSC record. Over the final 15 games of the regular season, Union played 11 games versus NCAA D2 top-20 teams. Union posted two 7-game winning streaks during the season, the longest winning streak since Union moved to Division II. 

Union started the season 0-6 but then won seven straight. Union won four of its first five GSC series, including each of its first three. 

In the final game of the regular season, a solo home run from Mackenzie David was home run number 46 on the season for the team, breaking the school record of 45 homers in a season set back in 2019. Similarly, that season Union was also a 7-seed in the GSC Tournament. Union's Macey Neal also set the record with a 21-game hitting streak this season.

Union's history in the GSC Tournament includes a trip in 2015 as the 5-seed, 2019 as the 7-seed, 2022 as the 8-seed, and this season as a 7-seed. Union is 1-6 in its previous three trips to the tournament with the lone win coming on the first day of the 2019 tournament as a 7-seed, defeating 2-seed Alabama Huntsville.

Union interim head coach Sydney Sterner said "The team has believed in each other and has encouraged each other and has elevated our game to compete on the field. Our victories and individual accomplishments on the field have been a by-product of that hard work."

Union senior first baseman Grace White said, "To see the work we've all put in this year, it is great to be in the tournament. I expect us to come out with as much fight and heart as any team in the tournament."

Junior shortstop Macey Neal leads Union in every offensive stat category including a GSC-leading .453 batting average. She also leads Union with 51 runs, 73 hits, 11 doubles, four triples, 11 home runs, and 45 RBI. Idalia Alarcon is second with a .333 average, tied for first with 21 doubles, and adds 31 runs, six home runs, and 21 RBI. Fallon Groves is second with 24 RBI and Mackenzie is second on the team with seven home runs. Union freshman Riley Vaughn led Union with a 12-11 record in the circle and with a 3.85 ERA. She posted 149 strikeouts on the season in 132.1 innings of work. She is third in the GSC with 149 strikeouts. 

-UNION-