BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - Beginning in 2014 the CSU Bakersfield softball team will become a member of the West Coast Conference. The Roadrunners are currently a member of the Pacific Coast Softball Conference and will continue to compete in the PCSC in the upcoming 2013 season.

In October, the entire CSUB athletic department announced its acceptance of an invitation to join the Western Athletic Conference. While the WAC does currently sponsor softball, several schools, like San Jose State, Utah State, UTSA, Louisiana Tech, Texas State and UT-Arlington, will be departing the conference in 2013 and leaving it without enough teams to eligible for an automatic bid into the NCAA postseason.

In July, the West Coast Conference announced that it will begin sponsoring softball, a sport currently not offered by the conference, in 2014. Since many of the schools who make up the Pacific Coast Softball Conference are members of the WCC, including St. Mary's, Santa Clara, Loyola Marymount and San Diego, they will now be the core members of the WCC softball conference. The five schools will be joined by CSUB, Utah Valley and Pacific to form an eight-team conference.

"We are excited to be a part of the inaugural West Coast Softball Conference," said CSUB head coach Crissy Buck. "Considering what we have built and been a part of with the PCSC, with the inclusion of BYU this year and then Pacific next year, the West Coast Conference is going to be a great fit for our program. It is going to be a competitive league that is going to get stronger every year."

The new conference affiliation will mark changes in CSUB's schedule outside of a change in name. Instead of playing annual four-game series with conference opponents, as is the format for the PCSC, the WCC will involve three-game annual series that alternate sites every year.

With the Big Sky Conference offering softball for the first time in 2013, the PCSC will already be smaller this year after five Big Sky teams left. Those teams include former PCSC Mountain Division members Portland State, Northern Colorado, Weber State and Idaho State, as well as CSUB's Coastal Division rival Sacramento State.

The changes result in a seven-team, one division PCSC for the final year of the conference for 2013. It will be made up of CSUB, BYU, LMU, St. Mary's, San Diego, Santa Clara and Utah Valley.

While the 'Runners will open up the 2013 season on Feb. 9-10 at the Stacey Winsburg Tournament in Los Angeles, they will open up the PCSC portion of their schedule March 23-24 with a pair of home doubleheaders against LMU at the Roadrunner Softball Complex.

~www.GoRunners.com~