ULM Warhawks

MONROE, La. – Fourth-year ULM head softball coach Corey Lyon released his team's 54-game 2018 schedule on Monday, Dec. 4. The schedule features 22 home games, including five during the  season-opening Mardi Gras Tournament Feb. 9-11.
 
The Warhawks will play 20 games against opponents that appeared in the 2017 postseason, including seven NCAA Tournament participants (LSU, Montana, Arizona, McNeese, Ole Miss, Texas State and Louisiana Lafayette) and five National Invitational Softball Championship participants (San Diego, Boise State, UT Arlington, Lamar and Georgia State). In total, ULM will play 25 games against opponents that won 30 or more games last season.
 
In addition to playing host to the season-opening Mardi Gras Tournament, ULM will participate three more tournaments before opening its conference schedule, including trips to the Hillenbrand Invitational in Tucson, Arizona (Feb. 16-18; hosted by Arizona); UCA Tournament in Conway, Arkansas (Feb. 22-24; hosted by Central Arkansas); and Blues City Classic in Memphis, Tenn. (March 2-4; hosted by Memphis).
 
ULM's non-conference home slate includes five other midweek games against McNeese (Feb. 28), UAPB (March 20), Southeastern Louisiana (April 3), Mississippi Valley State (April 17) and Lamar (April 25).
 
The Warhawks have non-conference midweek road trips to LSU (Feb. 13), Central Arkansas (March 7) and Ole Miss (April 18).
 
ULM's four Sun Belt home series are against Troy (March 17-18), Coastal Carolina (March 30-31), UT Arlington (April 7-8) and Georgia State (April 28-29). The Warhawks' five conference road series include trips to Appalachian State (March 10-11), Georgia Southern (March 24-25), South Alabama (April 14-15), Texas State (April 21-22) and Louisiana Lafayette (May 4-5).
 
Coach Lyon welcomes back eight starters from last year's team that won 33 games and made the program's first-ever postseason tournament appearance, as ULM finished as runner-up in the inaugural NISC Lamar Regional.
 
"We're very excited about the schedule for the 2018 spring season," Lyon said. "We've challenged ourselves by playing perennial national powerhouses like Arizona, LSU and Ole Miss as well as a match-up against Kansas, out of the Big 12. We play a home schedule of 22 games, which is the most since I've been here. We're very excited and look to build off of our record-breaking season from a year ago."
 
The 2018 Sun Belt Softball Championship will be held May 9-12 in Lafayette, Louisiana.