JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (May 6, 2025) – East Tennessee State University softball will open the 2025 Southern Conference Tournament at 1 p.m. on Wednesday against No. 6 Western Carolina.

The Catamounts took the regular season series over the Buccaneers 2-1 on March 22-23 in the first conference series of the season for both squads. Sara Muir and Makayla Veglia, who were key for ETSU in the win over Chattanooga on Sunday, also came up big for the Bucs in the win over WCU.

Muir started the Sunday game in March and earned the win, while helping herself out with two RBI at the plate. Veglia tallied an RBI and scored a run, and Cameron Young had a pair of hits in the win. In the Bucs' two losses to the Catamounts, WCU hit four home runs, but ETSU's pitching allowed just one extra base hit to Western Carolina in its loss.  

ETSU earned the No. 7 seed despite not winning a regular season SoCon series as a result of taking one game in each of its last four series. Three of those came against the top three seeded teams in the conference in Chattanooga, UNCG and Wofford, and the latter two were both on the road.

The Bucs passed Furman on the last day of the regular season with Veglia's walk-off sacrifice fly against Chattanooga. 

The contest between ETSU and WCU will be single-elimination. The winner will advance to the double-elimination portion of the bracket beginning against Wofford at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

For more information on Buccaneer softball, follow @ETSUSoftball on X (Twitter), @etsubucssoftball on Instagram and visit ETSUBucs.com.