SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Regular-season champion and defending tournament champion Mercer has claimed the top seed in the Southern Conference Baseball Championship, which will take place May 24-29 at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C.
All nine Southern Conference teams will participate in the tournament, with seeds 8 and 9 participating in a single-elimination game on Tuesday, May 24, for the right to advance to the double-elimination portion of the bracket. The championship game will take place Sunday, May 29, at 1 p.m., with a second game, if necessary, to begin 60 minutes after the completion of the first contest.
The tournament winner earns the league’s automatic bid to an NCAA Baseball Regional.
The SoCon tournament will begin Tuesday at 10 a.m. with eighth-seeded The Citadel (16-40, 6-18 SoCon) taking on No. 9 seed VMI (21-34, 4-20) for the right to advance to face the No. 1-seeded Bears on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. The Bulldogs and Keydets opened their conference slates against each other in late March, with The Citadel claiming the series with a 4-2 win in the rubber game.
Mercer (35-21, 16-8) won its second straight regular-season title by taking two of three from UNCG to end the regular season. The squads entered the series tied atop the league standings and then split a Thursday doubleheader to set up a winner-take-all contest Friday. The Bears were in charge from the get-go, claiming a 9-1 win to earn consecutive league titles for the first time in school history. Mercer, who will be vying for their second straight SoCon tournament title, as well, won both series against The Citadel and VMI, 2-1.
Western Carolina (25-28, 15-9) and UNCG (37-19, 15-9) finished tied for second in the standings, but the Catamounts claimed the No. 2 seed via their series win over the Spartans. WCU will face No. 7 seed Wofford (30-26, 12-12) on Wednesday at 4 p.m. Wofford, which was swept by the Catamounts the first weekend of April, finished its regular-season campaign with a series loss at Furman, winning the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, 13-5, to avoid the sweep.
Third-seeded UNCG, which won its most games since 2003 and finished one conference win shy of its first league title since 1998, will take on No. 6 seed Samford (32-24, 13-11) on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Samford, which took two of three from the Spartans in late April to hand UNCG its first SoCon series loss of the season, took two of three from VMI to close the regular season. The Bulldogs are one of the hottest teams in the league entering the tournament, as they won have six of their final eight games.
No. 4 seed Furman (27-28, 14-10) will face No. 5 seed ETSU (26-28, 13-11) on Wednesday at 9 a.m. The Paladins, who closed the regular season with four straight series wins, claimed their highest seed since 2008, when they were the 3 seed. The Bucs also enter the tournament on an impressive hot streak, as ETSU has won 10 of its last 14 games and took the 5 seed by virtue of its sweep of Samford during the regular season. The Bucs took two of three from Furman in early April.
Sunday’s championship game(s) will be broadcast live on ESPN3, while every other contest will stream live for free on the SoCon Digital Network.
May 24 (Tuesday)
SoCon Championship (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 1: #8 The Citadel vs. #9 VMI 10 a.m.
May 25 (Wednesday)
SoCon Championship (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 2: #4 Furman vs. #5 ETSU 9 a.m.
Game 3: #1 Mercer vs. Winner Game 1 12:30 p.m.
Game 4: #2 Western Carolina vs. #7 Wofford 4 p.m.
Game 5: #3 UNCG vs. #6 Samford 7:30 p.m.
May 26 (Thursday)
SoCon Championship (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 6: Loser Game 2 vs. Loser Game 3 9 a.m.
Game 7: Loser Game 4 vs. Loser Game 5 12:30 p.m.
Game 8: Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3 4 p.m.
Game 9: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5 7:30 p.m.
May 27 (Friday)
SoCon Championship (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 10: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 9 3:30 p.m.
Game 11: Winner Game 7 vs. Loser Game 8 7 p.m.
May 28 (Saturday)
SoCon Championship (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 12: Winner Game 8 vs. Winner Game 9 12 p.m.
Game 13: Winner Game 10 vs. Winner Game 11 3:30 p.m.
Game 14: Winner Game 13 vs. Loser Game 12 7 p.m.
May 29 (Sunday)
SoCon Championship (ESPN3)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 15: Winner Game 12 vs. Winner Game 14 1 p.m.
^Game 16: Winner Game 15 vs. Loser Game 15 60 minutes after Game 15
^ if necessary
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