WKU Softball announced its schedule for the 2022 season on Tuesday afternoon, just four weeks before the group will be back on the field. 

The Hilltoppers are bringing back 10 players from the previous year along with welcoming two transfer students and five freshmen. 

The Hilltoppers will hope to defend their title as Conference USA Champions. The team will playing a total of 50 games this spring, ending with this year’s Conference USA Tournament in Denton, Texas, hosted by the North Texas Mean Green on May 11-14

Among the 50 scheduled games, WKU will be facing several powerful opponents such as SEC schools Alabama, Texas A&M and Ole Miss. 

The first tournament of the season, The Aggie Classic, is set to start at 10 a.m. CT on Feb. 11. The event will be hosted by Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, where WKU will face UT Arlington, Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Texas A&M University.

Following the Aggie Classic, the Hilltoppers will then be heading back to their home turf for the next two tournaments. 

The WKU Hilltopper Classic will take place Feb. 18-20 and will include Central Michigan University, in-state rival Bellarmine and Southeast Missouri State University.

Next, WKU will remain on the Hill for the Hilltopper Spring Fling, which takes place Feb. 25-27 against Ohio, Dayton and Illinois State. 

The final tournament of the regular season will be in Oxford, Mississippi, hosted by Ole Miss. The Ole Miss Classic is scheduled for March 4-6 and features Samford, Ole Miss and Saint Louis. 

After those four tournaments, the Hilltoppers will start C-USA play with a series against Charlotte from March 11-13. The rest of their season will contain a majority of C-USA games but will also include some non-conference opponents in Chattanooga, Belmont, Eastern Kentucky and Lipscomb. 

One matchup that will be sure to attract fans is their last non-conference game against Alabama on Wednesday, April 27. The game begins at 5 p.m. CT and will take place in Bowling Green.

The regular season will conclude with a three-game series against Middle Tennessee State from May 6-8. 

The full 2022 schedule can be found here. 

Sports reporter Lynda Eernisse can be reached at [email protected].