Southland Conference Tournament Returns to Whataburger Field
After defending its title from a season ago, Texas State will again be the top seed in the 2010 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament when it begins Wednesday at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Bobcats claimed their fourth regular-season championship and second outright title on the final day of the regular season with a 34-20 overall record and a 23-10 mark in conference play.
Texas State will play No. 8 seed Nicholls, which finished 26-27 overall and 15-18 in the Southland. The Colonels are making just their third overall appearance in the tournament and their first since 2000. That game will be Wednesday at 4 p.m. Stephen F. Austin and UT Arlington are the other two teams on that side of the bracket. The Lumberjacks drew the No. 4 seed and the Mavericks are the No. 5 seed for the second consecutive season. That game will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday. SFA finished 34-18 overall and 20-12 against league teams, while UT Arlington finished 27-29 and 19-14. The winners of those two games advance to play Thursday at 7 p.m., while the losers will move into the losers' bracket and will meet Thursday at noon.
The tournament gets underway Wednesday at 9 a.m. when No. 3 seed Southeastern Louisiana will square off against No. 6 McNeese State. The Lions won more games this season than any team in the Southland, finishing with a 39-17 record overall to go with a 21-12 record in conference play. The Cowboys were 29-25 and 16-17. The other half of the bracket pits No. 2 seed Northwestern State with No. 7 seed Lamar. That game will be played Wednesday at noon. The Demons came within a half-game of Texas State in the final conference standings, finishing with a 22-10 record against conference foes to go with a 36-19 record overall. Lamar was 31-24 and 16-17 in the Southland.
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 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, June 4-7.
Southland Tournament Returns to Whataburger Field
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is serving as the host of the Southland Conference tournament at Whataburger Field, home to the Corpus Christi Hooks, the Double-A minor league affiliate of the Houston Astros. This marks the second time since the 1998 season the tournament was not played on one of the Southland campuses. The 2009 tournament was also held at Whataburger Field.
Ticket Information
Tickets for the event are available by calling either the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi ticket office at 361-825-2255 or Corpus Christi Hooks ticket office at 361-561-4796. Tickets are also available at Whataburger Field or online at www.cchooks.com. An all-tournament ticket is available for $50 while individual session tickets are available for $10 for adults and $5 for youth. Day tickets are available for $15 for adults and $10 for youth and include admission to all four games each day. A session ticket includes admission to both games of a particular session and is available for $10 for adults and $5 for youth. Students at Southland institutions may get in free by showing a valid student ID card.
Winner Advances to NCAA Tournament
The winner of the Southland Conference tournament earns the league's automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. The field of 64 will be announced Monday at 11:30 a.m., CDT, on ESPN. The tournament begins with regional play June 4-7 at campus sites. Super Regionals will be held June 11-14 and the College World Series will be June 19-30. This year marks the final year the CWS will be played at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb.
Tournament History
This marks the 24th 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 leads all conference teams with four tournament championships, including each of the last three. Texas State, which has three tournament championships to its credit, will be trying to match their rivals. The regular-season champion has won the tournament seven times though that has happened just twice since the tournament resumed in 1993. Lamar is the last to have won both championships, doing so in 2004. Texas State was a division winner in 1997 and emerged to win the tournament title.
Choice Named Southland Player, Hitter of the Year
UT Arlington centerfielder Michael Choice is the Southland Conference Player and Hitter of the Year. Choice has been walked 71 times this season, including 20 intentional. Both figures lead the nation. The junior from Arlington, Texas (Mansfield Timberview), also leads the nation with a .568 on-base percentage and the conference with a .710 slugging percentage. He is second in batting average (.383) and runs scored (62) and is tied for second in total bases (130), third in home runs (16) and fifth in runs batted in (57). He has reached base safely in 68 consecutive games. Choice, who was the league's freshman of the year in 2008, becomes the first player in conference history to also earn player of the year honors. He is a .392 career hitter with 34 home runs and 160 RBI. Baseball America has projected Choice as the 11th pick in next month's Major League draft.
Bobcat's Smith Named League's Top Pitcher, Newcomer
Texas State pitcher Carson Smith is the second consecutive Bobcat to be named the conference pitcher of the year and the third overall and is also the second consecutive Bobcat to be named the conference newcomer of the year. The sophomore right hander from Midland, Texas (Midland Christian) and a transfer from Grayson County Community College, was also the league's newcomer of the year. Smith led the conference in opponent batting averaging (.227) and was tied for first in wins (9-3). He is second in earned run average (2.78) and innings pitched (100.1), fifth in strikeouts (90) and tied for 10th in saves (three). Smith has six complete games this season, including each of his last five starts.
UTSA's Dalton Named Conference Freshman of the Year
Ryan Dalton is the third Roadrunner to be named the Southland's top freshman and the first since Tim Palincsar earned the honor in 2007. Dalton is tied with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi junior Trey Hernandez for the Southland lead with 17 home runs and that total ranks second nationally among freshman in addition to being the third-best single-season total in school history. He also led the Roadrunners with 51 RBI and hit .305 in starting 50 games at third base.
Northwestern State's Sheppard Named Inaugural Relief Pitcher of the Year
Sheppard is the first player to be named the Southland's relief pitcher of the year, a new award in 2010. The Northwestern State right hander tied his own single-season record with 10 saves this season and has a career-record 20 saves in just two seasons. The sophomore from Enterprise, La. (Franklin Academy), ranks third in games finished (21), is tied for third with 25 games in relief and tied for seventh with 25 appearances, which ranks second in school history for a single season. Sheppard is a third-team all-conference selection. He is 2-0 with a 3.23 ERA and 49 strikeouts in 39 innings.
SFA Skipper Cardenas is Coach of the Year
Cardenas becomes the first coach in Stephen F. Austin history to be honored as the league's coach of the year. In fact, it is just the third time SFA has ever won a postseason superlative award. Steven Hill was named the league's hitter and player of the year in 2007. Picked to finish eighth in the preseason coaches' and sports information directors' polls, the 34-18 Lumberjacks enter the conference tournament as the No. 4 seed, the highest tournament seed in school history. They were within 1.5 games of first place with just two weeks left of the season. The second-year skipper is 57-50 at SFA and the 34 wins are tied for the most in program history.
Northwestern State Leads with Seven All-Conference Selections
Northwestern State placed a league-best seven student-athletes on the three all-conference teams, including four on the first team. Outfielders Eric DeBlanc and Oscar Garcia join catcher Aaron Munoz and pitcher Luke Irvine as first-team honorees, while third baseman Chase Lyles earned second team honors and pitchers Sheppard and Ryan Zimmerman garnered third-team honors.
DeBlanc leads the conference with a .397 batting average and ranks third with 83 hits. He is tied for third with four triples and ranks eighth with 56 runs scored. Garcia's .377 batting average ranks third. He also ranks third in on-base percentage (.475) and runs scored (60). Munoz has picked off 13 runners, which leads the conference. Irvine's 2.87 ERA and 99 strikeouts rank third in the Southland. His 15 starts are more than any other pitcher.
Bearkats Win 2009 Southland Tournament
Sam Houston State defeated Texas State 7-1 in the championship game of the 2009 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament at Whataburger Field to become just the second team to win three consecutive Southland tournament championships.
Trinity University won the first three conference tournament titles in 1964, 1965 and 1966 and no university has been able to do it since. That is, not until Mark Johnson became the head coach at Sam Houston State in the summer of 1996. The Bearkats have not lost any of the 12 Southland tournament games under Johnson and last year's win netted the school's fourth tournament championship. That figure leads all Southland programs, breaking a tie with Trinity and Texas State.
The Bearkats beat Southeastern Louisiana 9-2 and needed 11 innings to get past UTSA 8-6. Sam Houston beat Southeastern La. 7-2 to get to the championship game against Texas State, which beat Stephen F. Austin 9-2 before a pair of wins over Lamar (10-1 and 13-2) sent it to the championship game. The Southland Conference regular season champion has won the league tournament just twice since 1993.
Sam Houston's Shelton Named 2009 Tournament MVP
Sam Houston State pitcher Matt Shelton improved to 7-0 after a relief victory in the championship game, his second of the 2009 tournament. He struck out eight and did not walk a batter in 77 pitches. His other win came against UTSA in the Bearkats' second game of the tournament. In the 9.1 innings he pitched in the tournament, he did not allow a run and finished with 12 strikeouts, including eight in the title game. His efforts earned him Most Valuable Player honors for the tournament. Joining him on the all-tournament team from Sam Houston State were catcher Mark Wyatt, Adam DeLaGarza and pitcher Sean Weatherford also received mention. Texas State had first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, shortstop Jason Martinson and outfielder Bret Atwood named to the list.
Scouting the 2010 Field...
No. 1 Texas State
Only one team has made more appearances in the Southland Conference tournament than Texas State. The Bobcats are making their 15th appearance in the conference postseason tournament and have won it three times previously. Texas State won tournament championships in 1997 and back-to-back in 1999 and 2000. The Bobcats entered last year's event as the top seed for the first time in school history and reached the championship game before falling 7-1 to Sam Houston State, which became the first team to win the event four times. Texas State could win its fourth tournament this year. The Bobcats have reached the championship game five times.
No. 2 Seed Northwestern State
The Demons are making a conference-record 17th appearance in the Southland tournament. Northwestern State, second all-time with nine regular season titles, has an all-time record of 19-32 in the tournament and is one of five current Southland programs in search of its first tournament championship. Northwestern State has played in the tournament championship five times, including 1994, 1996, 1998, 2002 and most recently in 2006 when it lost 8-2 to UT Arlington. The Demons, which are 0-2 in each of their last two tournament trips, are making their third consecutive appearance in the tournament and have missed only one tournament (2007) since the turn of the century.
No. 3 Seed Southeastern Louisiana
The Lions are making their third consecutive appearance and fifth overall appearance in the Southland Conference tournament. Southeastern Louisiana is one of five active Southland programs never to win a regular-season or tournament championship. Last season, the Lions were the No. 2 seed after finishing with 21 conference victories. It was their highest seed since earning the sixth seed in the 1999 tournament. Southeastern is 7-8 in the tournament after going 2-2 last year. Though the Lions have yet to reach the championship game, they have twice come within one game.
No. 4 Seed Stephen F. Austin
The Lumberjacks are making their second consecutive and third overall appearance in the Southland Conference tournament. Stephen F. Austin was 0-2 last year, dropping games to Texas State and UT Arlington when they were just the second team to enter the tournament since 1993 with a losing conference record. This year, the Lumberjacks bring a winning record, just as it did in 2007. SFA is looking for its first win since that 2007 season, when it accumulated a 1-2 record in its first tournament appearance, sandwiching losses to UTSA and Texas State in between an 11-3 win against McNeese State. Stephen F. Austin was without a baseball program from the 1996 season through 2005.
No. 5 UT Arlington
The Mavericks are playing in their third consecutive Southland Conference tournament and are making their 14th overall appearance. UT Arlington, which has two regular-season conference championships, has also won the conference tournament twice, winning its first title in 2001 and again in 2006. The Mavericks are the last team not named Sam Houston State to win the tournament, beating Northwestern State in that 2006 championship game. UTA was 1-2 last year after going 0-2 in 2008. UTA is 22-24 in the conference tournament.
No. 6 Seed McNeese State
McNeese State, which is making its ninth appearance in the Southland Conference tournament, joins the field for the first time since 2007, when it went 0-2 with losses to Lamar and Stephen F. Austin. The Cowboys are looking for their first win 2003 when it went 3-1 and beat UT Arlington for their second tournament championship. McNeese, which also won the tournament championship in 1993, is 11-13 in its eight previous appearances. The Cowboys have won the tournament both times it reached the championship game.
No. 7 Seed Lamar
No team in Southland Conference tournament history has more wins than do the Cardinals, and they will look to add on to their league-best total of 26 in Corpus Christi, Texas, when they make their 12th all-time and 10th consecutive appearance in the postseason classic. The last time Lamar, which boasts an impressive 26-18 tournament record, won a tournament championship was in 2004. Lamar's first tournament title came in 2002, when it defeated Northwestern State in a 5-4 thriller in Beaumont. The Cardinals, which have won a league-best 10 regular-season championships, were 2-2 last year with a pair of wins over UT Arlington and losses to Texas State.
No. 8 Seed Nicholls
The Colonels qualified for the Southland Conference tournament for the first time since 2000 when it went 0-2 with losses to Texas State and Louisiana-Monroe. Nicholls won its only tournament championship in 1998 with wins over McNeese State, Texas State, Sam Houston State and Northwestern State in the tournament final in Shreveport, La. Nicholls is making just its third appearance in tournament and is 4-2.