Louisville earned the top seed in the upcoming 2005 Conference USA Softball Tournament by finishing off a three-game sweep of No. 25 DePaul with a 4-0 victory on Sunday. Senior Aja Sherman’s second shutout of the weekend gave the Cardinals (40-16, 20-4 C-USA) their first regular season title in school history. This year’s tournament will be hosted by the fourth-seeded USF Bulls and played at the USF Softball Complex in Tampa, Fla., on May 12-14.

The Cardinals’ first action of the tournament will be in game four on Thursday at 6:30 p.m., EDT, when U of L takes on the winner of game two, which features the host Bulls and the No. 5 seed Houston Cougars. Game two is slated to start at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday. Louisville enters the tournament with a season-best 14-game winning streak.

The Bulls (38-24, 15-9) were the only C-USA team who knew its seeding entering the final weekend of play. Fourth-seeded USF tuned up for the tournament with a three-game sweep on the road at Saint Louis. The Cougars (28-26, 11-12) needed just one win in their weekend series with UAB to clinch a spot in the tournament and did that on Saturday with a doubleheader sweep of the Blazers. Sunday’s contest between the schools was the first rain out of the 2005 C-USA schedule.

Three-time defending tournament champion DePaul will be the No. 2 seed after dropping three straight to Louisville at home over the weekend. The Blue Demons led the Cardinals by two games in the C-USA standings entering the final weekend of play, but could not notch a win to secure the league title. DePaul will face the winner of the East Carolina-Southern Miss contest (Game One, 10 a.m.) in game three at 4 p.m.

The Pirates (55-17, 17-7), who are the No. 3 seed, led the nation in victories entering the final weekend of play, but dropped two of three to the Golden Eagles (28-30, 10-14) in Hattiesburg. Southern Miss needed a pair of wins on the weekend to secure a spot in the tournament and the squad accomplished that Sunday by winning the series with a 12-4 victory over East Carolina. The Golden Eagles earned the No. 6 seed in Tampa and have won nine of their last 11 contests.

The championship will be a six-team double-elimination tournament (except for the championship game), with the winner receiving the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. Saturday’s championship game on May 14 will be televised by affiliates of the Conference USA Television Network. Don Russell will announce the play-by-play with Cheri Kempf providing the commentary.

Thursday, May 12
Game 1 – (3) East Carolina vs. (6) Southern Miss, 10 a.m.
Game 2 – (4) USF vs. (5) Houston, 12:30 p.m.
Game 3 – (2) DePaul vs. Game 1 winner 4 p.m.
Game 4 – (1) Louisville vs. Game 2 winner, 6:30 p.m.

Friday, May 13
Game 5 – Loser Game 2 vs. Loser Game 3, 10 a.m.
Game 6 – Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 4, 12:30 p.m.
Game 7 – Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 4 p.m.
Game 8 – Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 14
Game 9 – Loser Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 10 a.m.
Game 10 – Championship Game, 2 p.m.
All time Eastern

-ConferenceUSA.com -