LORMAN, Miss. – The Alcorn State University softball program revealed its 2020 schedule, which features 13 home contests at the Alcorn Softball Complex and a trio of non-conference tournaments.
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The season begins Saturday, Feb. 8 when the Lady Braves head to Florence, Alabama. Alcorn will play a pair of games against both North Alabama and Tennessee State over two days.
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"We are excited about the games we have set to play. We finally get a chance to get over the 50-game mark for the regular season. That's been a fight, really an exhausting battle to get the resources to do so. But, I'm glad our athletic administration made a commitment in that particular area," said Alcorn head coach
Josef Rankin.
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The Lady Braves will partake in the Vicksburg Tournament at Vicksburg High School on Feb. 14-16 and face Jarvis Christian, SIU-Edwardsville, Miles College and Southern in a non-conference game.
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Alcorn will also participate in tournaments hosted by Southeastern Louisiana and Mississippi State. At those tournaments, they will square off with Incarnate Word, Nicholls, SLU, Abilene Christian, Mississippi State, Tennessee-Martin and UAB.
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Other big non-conference games include trips to Southern Miss, Alabama, Memphis and Central Arkansas.
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"Our non-conference schedule offers a great opportunity for us to establish depth and compete with some teams who are going to play at a very high level. It's going to be about making the most of those opportunities. We just want to compete. I don't want us to compare ourselves to who is on the schedule. I just want us to be extremely confident in what we do and just go compete – just compete and see what happens. If they beat you, then so be it, but it can't be about getting beat because you are intimidated or you backed down," Rankin said. "Those games should prepare us for our conference schedule. I just want us to be prepared to get after those conference series' and accomplish the goals we have for our program."
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SWAC play begins Friday, March 13 when the Lady Braves host Arkansas-Pine Bluff in a three-game series.
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Alcorn will also host three-game series' against Alabama A&M and Alabama State. The team will make trips to Texas Southern, Mississippi Valley State and Jackson State.
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"Our fall has been outstanding from what Coach [Lonnie] Maddox has done with the team in the weight room and we have had a different type of energy on the field. Hopefully, that translates to some great things when we travel to North Alabama on Feb. 8," Rankin said.
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Rankin enters his sixth season at the helm. Alcorn has gone four consecutive years without a losing season in conference, which has never been done before in program history.
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Click here for the full schedule.
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