COMMERCE— The Texas A&M University-Commerce softball team will face Cameron in the first round of the Lone Star Conference postseason tournament on Friday in San Angelo. Should the Lions advance, they would face No. 5 West Texas A&M later in the day with the winner playing in the championship game on Saturday.
 
WHO: Texas A&M-Commerce (34-19, 16-14 LSC) vs. Cameron (32-17, 20-8 LSC)
WHERE: Mayer Field in San Angelo, Texas
WHEN: Friday, May 5 at 11 a.m.
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The Lions are coming off of a series win against Texas Woman's University, which included a thrilling 13-11 win on Sunday to claim the final seed in the LSC tournament. Head coach Richie Bruister was still ecstatic about the win and the fan support in that game.
 
"I was really excited for our atmosphere," he said. "That is something we have been trying to create since we started the program. It takes time to do that. That takes the entire athletic department coming together. I was very happy with all of the work that was put in and everybody going out. There were 600 people at the ball game. It was loud. It was exciting. The music was great. It was just a wonderful atmosphere to take in a wonderful Lion win."
 
With the win, the Lions now have 100 wins in their program history. While he personally is proud of the accomplishment, Bruister says it is means more to the players who made it happen.
 
"It's mainly for the girls," he said. "They are the ones that come out every single day and work hard. They give everything they've got to this program and to this university. I'm proud for them and what they have accomplished in such a short amount of time. All those wins are on them and everything they have done and what they have meant to me, our coaches, to our athletic department, to our university and to our alumni, they have just been absolutely wonderful. I am very proud of their accomplishments."
 
The Lions will now face Cameron in the opening round of the LSC Tournament. The Aggies swept the Lions at home early in the regular season. The Lions rebounded from those losses to win 10 of their next 11 games. Bruister is confident his team has improved greatly over the last two months and will be able to compete and win.
 
"We are a better team now than what we were then," he said. "We were still finding ourselves at that point. We had some injuries we were going through. Now, we are clicking pretty well. I'm excited about the way we are playing ball. I'm excited about the things I'm seeing.
 
"Obviously Cameron is a good team. They are ranked ahead of us in the region. They are a very good team. We know we've got to show up and play all aspects of our game. But we know we've got a really good team and we are looking forward to that matchup."
 
The LSC Tournament is a single elimination tournament. Should the Lions win, they would face West Texas A&M starting at 4 p.m. that same day. The winner will advance to the championship game on Saturday at 2 p.m. With the potential to play three different conference opponents in two days, Bruister knows the familiarity of the opponent will help with game planning.
 
"We've played everybody at least three times," he said. "They know us and we know them. Now it is just about executing. It is a great format that we have chosen with our conference tournament to protect all of us for our regional rankings. We just have to go in there and take care of business and hopefully come out champions."
 
The Lions are ranked eighth in the South Central Region going into the tournament. With eight teams advancing to the NCAA Playoffs next week and with all six teams in the LSC Tournament ranked in the top eight, Bruister knows any wins in the tournament will help the team's regional rankings.
 
"Going in, Cameron is number five, which is great," he said. "Hopefully we are fortunate enough to beat them. Then we would play WT, who is second in the region. Then whoever comes out on the other side is already regionally ranked too. It only helps our strength of schedule in our regional rankings if we go in and have success."