Bearkats No. 1 Seed At Southland Tournament
5/18/2014 7:43:00 PM | Baseball
Sam Houston State earned the top seed for the 2014 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament that gets underway Wednesday at Bear Stadium on the campus of Central Arkansas in Conway, Ark.
The Bearkats won their last 12 conference games of the season to claim their third consecutive regular-season championship and their fourth overall. No. 26 Sam Houston won the Southland by one game, finishing league play with a 22-8 record to go along with a 40-15 overall record.
This year marks the first time since 1987 that the Bearkats reached the 40-win plateau in the regular season. Sam Houston is making its 13th tournament appearance and are 27-15 all-time in the event, which includes 13-consecutive wins that produced three tournament championships in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
A win in this year's tournament would give the Bearkats a league-record fifth tournament title. Sam Houston will play No. 8 seed Lamar Wednesday at noon.
Lamar won its final two conference games against Oral Roberts after dropping the series opener to finish one game ahead of the Golden Eagles for the eighth and final tournament spot. Lamar is making its second consecutive and 15th overall tournament appearance. The Cardinals last won three conference tournaments with their last title coming in 2010. Lamar finished 16-14 in the Southland and brings a 31-23 overall record to the tournament.
The winner in the Sam Houston and Lamar game will play the winner between No. 4 seed Northwestern State and No. 5 seed Southeastern Louisiana, who open the tournament Wednesday at 9 a.m.
The winners of Wednesday's two early games advance to play Thursday at 4 p.m. while the losers play Thursday at 9 a.m.
The afternoon session will begin with No. 7 seed McNeese State and No. 2 seed Nicholls Wednesday at 4 p.m.
The winner of the Nicholls vs. McNeese game will await the winner between No. 6 seed Central Arkansas and No. 3 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Wednesday at 7 p.m.
The winners of Wednesday's two late games advance to play Thursday at 7 p.m. while the losers play Thursday at noon.
This marks the 28th year of the Southland Conference baseball tournament. It began in 1964 though no tournament was played between 1969 and 1992. Since it resumed in 1993, Sam Houston State and Texas State lead all conference teams with four tournament championships. The Bearkats won their first tournament title in 1996 and won three in a row from 2007 through 2009.
The regular-season champion has won the tournament eight times though just three times since the tournament resumed in 1993. The last team to do that was Texas State, which won both the regular-season and tournament titles in 2011.
The tournament is set up in similar fashion to the NCAA College World Series in that there are two brackets with the winners meeting for the championship. Unlike in Omaha, the bracket winners of the Southland tournament meet in a single game to decide the championship. The winner of the Southland tournament is the league's automatic qualifier for the NCAA tournament, which begins with regional play, May 30-June 2.
The schedule of the double-elimination event has four games on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Two “if-necessary” games are scheduled for Saturday before the championship game, which will be played at 1 p.m. or 5 p.m. and be available exclusively on ESPN3.
The championship broadcast will be called by Chris Mycoskie, the Southland's assistant commissioner of television, and Tommy Krysan, a former Southeastern Louisiana pitcher. Every game of the tournament, which the exception of the title game, will be streamed live on the Southland Conference Digital Network, which includes Southland.org and the league's free mobile and tablet apps.
=An all-tournament pass, which allows entry into all 15 possible games of the tournament, is $35 for adults and $25 for children ages 3-12. An adult single-day pass, which will include four games on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with a possibility of three games on Saturday, is $14 each day, while a single-day pass for children is $10. If Saturday features only one game, then tickets for the championship will be $9 for adults and $7 for children. Students at Southland Conference institutions will also gain free admission with a valid student ID. Tickets are available for purchase in person at the Central Arkansas ticket office, by phone at 501-852-2234, and online at the university's athletics website at www.ucasports.com/tickets.
The winner of the 2014 tournament receives an automatic qualification to the NCAA tournament. The selection show airs Monday, May 26 at 11 a.m., CDT, on ESPNU.
2014 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament Schedule
Wednesday, May 21
Game One: No. 5 Southeastern La. vs. No. 4 Northwestern St., 9 a.m.
Game Two: No. 8 Lamar vs. No. 1 Sam Houston St., Noon
Game Three: No. 7 McNeese St. vs. No. 2 Nicholls, 4 p.m.
Game Four: No. 6 Central Arkansas vs. No. 3 A&M-Corpus Christi, 7 p.m.
Thursday, May 22
Game Five: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 9 a.m.
Game Six: Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, Noon
Game Seven: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 4 p.m.
Game Eight: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 7 p.m.
Friday, May 23
Game Nine: Loser Game 7 vs. Winner Game 5, 9 a.m.
Game 10: Loser Game 8 vs. Winner Game 6, Noon
Game 11: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 9, 4 p.m.
Game 12: Winner Game 8 vs. Winner Game 10, 7 p.m.
Saturday, May 24
*#Game 13: Loser Game 11 vs. Winner Game 11, 9 a.m.
^#Game 14: Loser Game 12 vs. Winner Game 12, 1 p.m.
+Championship: Winner Game 13 vs. Winner Game 14, 1 or 5 p.m.
* Game 13 will be necessary if the winner of Game 9 also wins Game 11.
^ Game 14 will be necessary if the winner of Game 10 also wins Game 12.
# If only one of the two early games is necessary on Saturday, it will be played at 9 a.m., with the Championship Game starting at 1 p.m.
+ If both bracket winners are undefeated, the championship game will be played on Saturday at 1 p.m.
NOTE: There will be a minimum of 45 minutes between games on Wednesday and 30 minutes the remainder of the week with no game starting prior to its scheduled start time.
