McNeese Opening Foe Wednesday In Sugar Land
5/17/2015 7:52:00 AM | Baseball
Sam Houston will be the number five seed and face number four seed McNeese State at 7 p.m. Wednesday night in the first round of the Southland Conference Tournament in Sugar Land.
Other first round matchups pit No. 3 Nicholls versus No. 6 Central Arkansas at 9 a.m.; No. 2 Northwestern State versus No. 7 Houston Baptist at 12 noon; and No. 1 Southeastern Louisiana versus No. 8 A&M-Corpus Christi at 3 p.m.
Southeastern Louisiana earned the one seed with a 25-5 league mark and a 40-15 overall record.
Northwestern State completed the season with a 20-8 Southland Conference record and 30-21 overall mark.
McNeese State, the Bearkats' first opponent claimed the No. 4 seed in the tournament after posting an 18-12 in Southland Conference action and 32-23 overall.
This marks the 29th 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 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 6 p.m. Every game of the 2015 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament will be carried live by ESPN3. Chris Mycoskie will handle play-by-play duties throughout the tournament, joined by several announcers from around the league. For the title game, Mycoskie will be matched with color analyst Greg Swin
dell, a first-team All-American at Texas and 17-year Major League veteran. ESPN3 is ESPN's live multi-screen sports network, a destination that delivers thousands of exclusive sports events annually. It is accessible online at WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app and streamed on televisions through Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
The winner of the 2014 tournament receives an automatic qualification to the NCAA tournament. The selection show airs Monday, May 25 at 11 a.m., CDT, on ESPNU.
2015 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament Schedule
Wednesday, May 20
Game One: No. 3 Nicholls vs. No. 6 Central Arkansas, 9 a.m.
Game Two: No. 2 Northwestern State vs. No. 7 Houston Baptist, Noon
Game Three: No. 1 Southeastern Louisiana vs. No. 8 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Game Four: No. 4 McNeese St. vs. No 5 Sam Houston State, 7 p.m.
Thursday, May 21
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 22
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 23
*#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, 6 p.m.
