Kats clinch Southland berth
5/16/2011 3:26:00 PM | Baseball
The tournament will be held Wednesday through Saturday, May 25-28, at Bobcat Ballpark on the campus of Texas State University-San Marcos.
Currently, the Bearkats are tied for third place with Southeastern Louisiana in the Southland standings, both with 17-13 league records. Sam Houston can finish no lower than eighth place in the final regular season standings, earning the Kats a berth in the eight-team tournament for the fourth time in the last five years.
Sam Houston won the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Southland tournaments to earn the league's NCAA Division I national playoffs berth. Since the Kats failed to qualify after an injury-riddled 2010 season, Sam Houston brings a 12-0 record into this year's tournament.
Going into a three-game series this Thursday through Saturday at Don Sanders Stadium, the Bearkats could finish as high as second place in the final regular season standings.
Texas State (23-7) already has clinched the regular season championship. Stephen F. Austin (18-12) owns a one-game lead for SHSU and Southeastern Louisiana for the runner-up position. The Lumberjacks finish the year hosting Lamar in a three-game series. Southeastern Louisiana travels to face last place Northwestern State this weekend.
Sam Houston holds the tiebreaker over SFA by virtue of a series sweep two weeks ago in Nacogdoches. However, Southeastern Louisiana took two-of-three from Sam Houston to hold the tiebreaking edge should the Lions and Bearkats remained tied.
Play in the Southland Conference baseball tournament begins Wednesday, May 25 with the No. 1 seeded Texas State meeting the No. 8 seed, No. 2 playing No. 7, No. 3 matching up with No. 6 and No. 4 dueling the No. 5 seed.
The tournament is a double elimination affair until the championship game on Saturday, May 28 in which it's winner take all. All 15 games of the 2011 baseball tournament will be streamed live on SLC Now available at www.Southland.org . The championship game will be televised by the Southland Conference television network.
This weekend's baseball series marks the final home appearance for Sam Houston head coach Mark Johnson who is retiring at the end of the 2011 season. Game times for the series are 6:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Johnson, who last year became only the 44th head coach in NCAA Division I baseball history to post more than 1,000 victories, will be honored in a special pre-game ceremony before the "Farewell Game" Friday, May 20.
Tickets for the three remaining home games including the Mark Johnson "Farewell Game" Friday May 20 at 6:30 p.m. are available online at www.gobearkats.com/tickets or at the athletic ticket office located in the Ron Mafrige Field House at Bowers Stadium. Ticket office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The ticket office telephone number is (936) 294-1729.
