The Southland Conference Tournament gets underway today at Cowgirl Diamond, with top-seeded McNeese State enjoying a first-round bye as seven teams vie for the title and accompanying automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The tournament starts today with three games. No. 4 Lamar (20-32) plays No. 5 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (23-22) at noon in the opener. The winner faces McNeese (41-14) at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

On the other side of the bracket, No. 2 Southeastern Louisiana (44-12) plays No. 7 Houston Christian (20-31) at 2:30 p.m., followed by No. 3 Nicholls State (27-22) vs. No. 6 Northwestern State (24-25) at 5 p.m.

McNeese head coach James Landreneau said the team’s regular-season conference title doesn’t matter once tournament play starts.

“There have been lots of teams, including ourselves, that have won the tournament not coming from the one seed,” he said. “It’s just a part of the puzzle. It’s great for our kids to be able to get a taste of it, get a sense of a championship. But, at the end of the day, we know what the end goal is. This is a step along the road, but we need to find a way to play good softball and make sure we are in the NCAA Tournament.”

The Cowgirls could have a case for an at-large bid without winning the SLC Tournament, but Landreneau would prefer not to have two sweat out the selection process. The NCAA Tournament field and bracket will be announced Sunday.

“Obviously you don’t want to have to lobby for your team, you want their record and what they have done to speak for itself,” he said.

“We played a challenging schedule. We have two top 25 wins. We have played several teams that are in the top 25 and several that will probably host a regional. We have been a consistent team.

“How the committee looks at that, I never know. Every year is different. There have been years where we were told that if we didn’t win the tournament we’d still have been in, but that changes year to year. Right now our best thing is we get to control our destiny. We are in a good spot and that is what we need to focus on.”

Landreneau said the extra day off allows the Cowgirls an additional chance to work on themselves before starting tournament play.

“It allows you a little bit of time to prepare,” he said. “Also, the kids that are a little banged up, it gives them a day off and allows us to have a regular practice instead of having to tone it down in order to prepare for a Tuesday game. It allows us to work on a couple of things we want to clean up from over the weekend. It’s definitely an advantage being in that situation.”

Final Standings

Team Overall SLC

x-McNeese St. 41-14 21-3

x-SE Louisiana 44-12 19-5

x-Nicholls St. 27-22 13-11

x-Lamar 20-32 12-12

x-Texas A&M-CC 23-22 11-13

x-Northwestern St. 24-25 10-14

x-Houston Christian 20-31 9-15

Incarnate Word 16-30-1 8-16

Texas A&M-Commerce 9-39 5-19

x-clinched tournament berth

SLC Tournament

May 9-May 12

At Lake Charles

Tuesday, May 9

Game 1 — No. 4 Lamar (20-32) vs. No. 5 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (23-22), noon

Game 2 — No. 2 Southeastern Louisiana (44-12) vs. No. 7 Houston Christian (20-31), 2:30 p.m.

Game 3 — No. 3 Nicholls St. (27-22) vs. No. 6 Northwestern St. (24-25), 5 p.m.

Wednesday, May 10

Game 4 — Game 1 winner vs. No. 1 McNeese St. (41-14), 11 a.m.

Game 5 — Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner, 1:30 p.m.

Game 6 — Game 2 loser vs. Game 3 loser, 4 p.m.

Game 7 — Game 1 loser vs. Game 5 loser, 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, May 11

Game 8 — Game 4 loser vs. Game 6 winner, 11 a.m.

Game 9 — Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 1:30 p.m.

Game 10 — Game 8 winner vs. Game 7 winner, 4 p.m.

Game 11 — Game 9 loser vs. Game 10 winner, 6:30 p.m.

Friday, May 12

Championship

Game 12 — Game 9 winner vs. Game 11 winner, noon

Game 13 — Rematch, 2:30 p.m. if necessary