No. 14 Lady Bulldogs open season Feb. 9

PERKINSTON — No. 14 Mississippi Gulf Coast opens its 2018 softball season Feb. 9 with a pair of games in Poplarville at the Pearl River Tournament.

Included in that action is a game against No. 1-ranked LSU-Eunice, the two-time defending national champions.

"This team needed to start out playing some pretty hard teams because our conference schedule is so tough," Gulf Coast coach Kenneth Long said. "We decided to go early on to the Pearl River Tournament. I think we needed that. They needed to see what it's like because it'll be just like that."

The Lady Bulldogs, winners of 40 games the past two seasons, open their home slate on Feb. 13. Their doubleheader against Baton Rouge will be played at West Harrison High School while the finishing touches are put on the new stadium at Ross-Smith Field.

"It's going to be unbelievable," Long said. "I don't even mind the delay for a couple of weeks because it's going to be so nice and so good for our fans. There will be so much excitement to be back on campus."

Gulf Coast opens its MACJC schedule Feb. 28 with a doubleheader at Copiah-Lincoln. The Lady Bulldogs' seven-date home conference slate starts March 3 when Holmes visits.

The MACJC playoffs begin April 27-28 with a best-of-three series that feeds into the state tournament on May 4-6. The Region 23 Tournament is May 10-12, with the NJCAA Tournament running May 16-19 at Clinton.

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