SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Regular-season champion UNCG has claimed the top seed in the Southern Conference Baseball Championship presented by Holston Gases, which will take place May 22-27 at Fluor Field in Greenville, South Carolina.
All nine Southern Conference teams will participate in the tournament, with seeds 8 and 9 participating in a single-elimination game on Tuesday, May 22, for the right to advance to the double-elimination portion of the bracket. The championship game will take place Sunday, May 27, at 12 p.m., with a second game, if necessary, to begin 40 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 (19-33,8-16 SoCon) taking on No. 9 Western Carolina (7-45, 5-19) for the right to advance to face the No. 1-seeded UNCG on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. When The Citadel and Western Carolina met March 23-26 in Charleston, South Carolina, it was the Bulldogs who claimed two of the three matchups which ultimately helped edge out the Catamounts for the No. 8 seed.
UNCG (37-13, 18-3) locked up its second regular-season title last weekend before having its last regular-season series at Furman cancelled due to weather. The Spartans, who are the reigning SoCon tournament champions, claimed the regular-season title for just the second time in the program’s history and the first since 1998. UNCG, which has now won 35 or more games in three straight seasons, won every SoCon series in 2018 including sweeps over Western Carolina, Samford, Mercer and The Citadel.
Samford (32-24, 16-8) claimed the second seed with a win over VMI on Friday night and will face No. 7 seed Furman (24-26, 9-12) on Wednesday at 4 p.m. The Bulldogs earned a series sweep over the Paladins in Greenville, South Carolina, earlier this season.
No. 3 seed Wofford (35-21, 15-9) finished the 2018 regular season in exciting fashion, walking-off ETSU 9-8 after trailing the Bucs 8-0 entering the bottom half of the sixth inning on Saturday. The Terriers will face ETSU (27-23, 11-13), the No. 6 seed, on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Wofford took two out of three games in Spartanburg, South Carolina, over the weekend, with the Bucs claiming game two 4-2 on Friday.
No. 4 seed VMI (26-25, 12-12) will take on No. 5 seed Mercer (35-20, 11-13) at 9 a.m. Wednesday. The Bears, who dropped two out of three games to The Citadel to end the regular season, took two of three from the Keydets in Macon, Georgia, from April 27-29. Mercer, which was the No. 1 seed in 2017, defeated ninth-seeded VMI 11-6 when the two sides met in last year’s tournament.
All tournament games will be broadcast live on the SoCon Digital Network.
May 22 (Tuesday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 1: #8 The Citadel vs. #9 Western Carolina 10 a.m.
May 23 (Wednesday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 2: #4 VMI vs. #5 Mercer 9 a.m.
Game 3: #1 UNCG vs. Winner Game 1 12:30 p.m.
Game 4: #2 Samford vs. #7 Furman 4 p.m.
Game 5: #3 Wofford vs. #6 ETSU 7:30 p.m.
May 24 (Thursday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (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 25 (Friday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 10: Winner Game 7 vs. Loser Game 8 3:30 p.m.
Game 11: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 9 7 p.m.
May 26 (Saturday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (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 27 (Sunday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 15: Winner Game 12 vs. Winner Game 14 12 p.m.
^Game 16: Winner Game 15 vs. Loser Game 15 40 minutes after Game 15
^ if necessary
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