ESPNEWS<\/a> at 3:30 p.m. Eastern. The winner of the tournament will earn The American’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.<\/p>\nThe Knights, who won their last eight conference games to close the regular-season, finished with a two-game lead on second-place USF in the final standings. Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ (39-15) will face No. 8-seeded UConn (13-37) at 5 p.m. ET Thursday in the third of four first-round games in the single-elimination championship. Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ set up the first-round meeting with UConn by sweeping the Huskies in the final weekend of conference play.<\/p>\n
The championship begins at 11 a.m. ET Thursday as No.3-seeded Louisville (33-20) faces No. 6 Temple (15-29). The Cardinals took all three regular-season meetings with the Owls and finished the regular season with five wins in their last six American Athletic Conference games.<\/p>\n
USF (40-14) won its last nine conference games and 10 of its last 11 overall. The Bulls, who are seeded No. 2, will face No. 7-seeded Memphis at 1:30 p.m. Thursday in the first round. USF took all three regular-season meetings against the Tigers (23-32).<\/p>\n
The final first-round paring has No. 4-seeded Houston (32-20) against No. 5-seeded Rutgers 27-18) at 7:30 p.m. ET in another rematch from the final weekend off the regular season. The teams split a doubleheader Saturday before Houston was a 4-2 winner in Sunday’s rubber match.<\/p>\n
2014 American Athletic Conference Softball Championship all games at Cougar Stadium, Houston, Texas<\/p>\n
Thursday, May 8<\/strong><\/p>\n(all games on the American Digital Network)<\/p>\n
Game 1 \u2013 No. 6 Temple (15-29) vs. No. 3 Louisville (33-20), 11 a.m.<\/p>\n
Game 2 \u2013 No. 7 Memphis (23-32) vs. No. 2 USF (40-14), 1:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
Game 3 \u2013 No. 8 UConn (13-37) vs. No. 1 Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ (39-15), 5 p.m.<\/p>\n
Game 4 \u2013 No. 5 Rutgers (27-18) vs. No. 4 Houston (32-20), 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
Friday, May 9<\/strong><\/p>\n(all games on the American Digital Network)<\/p>\n
Game 5 \u2013 Temple\/Louisville winner vs. Memphis\/USF winner, 5 p.m.<\/p>\n
Game 6 \u2013 UConn\/Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ winner vs. Rutgers\/Houston winner, 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
Saturday, May 10<\/strong><\/p>\n(televised live on ESPNEWS)<\/p>\n
Game 7 \u2013 Winner of Game 5 vs. Winner of Game 6, 3:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
All times Eastern<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After going 15-3 in conference play during the regular season, Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ has earned the No. 1 seed for the first American Athletic Conference Softball Championship, which takes place May 8-10 at Cougar Stadium on the campus of the University of Houston. All of Thursday’s first-round games and both of Friday’s semifinal games of the tournament will be carried live on…","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":59040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[9805,3346,4337,202],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-59036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-american-athletic-conference","tag-ncaa","tag-softball","tag-alumni"],"yoast_head":"\nSoftball: Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ Earns Top Seed | Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ News<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n