FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – For the second consecutive season and the third time in the last four years, Coastal Carolina is the No. 1 seed in the Royal Purple Big South Baseball Championship, which will be contested May 20-24 at Dan Daniel Memorial Park in Danville, Va. The Chanticleers won the outright 2008 regular-season championship with a 17-3 Conference mark to win their third regular-season Big South baseball crown in four years and fourth in seven seasons.
Liberty, which is the official host of the championship and has been the tournament’s runner-up the past two years, is the No. 2 seed. This is Liberty’s highest seeding in the Big South Baseball Championship since a No. 1 seed in 2000. VMI secured the No. 3 seed with its record of 14-7 in Big South play (29-24 overall), and will open against Winthrop, which garnered the fourth seed with its 11-10 League mark (24-32 overall). It is VMI’s highest seeding the baseball tournament since joining the Big South in 2004. The top four seeds will open tournament play on Wednesday, May 21.
For the second-straight year, the Big South Baseball Championship will feature eight squads competing for the League’s automatic berth to the NCAA Regional. The bottom four teams will play a single-elimination game on Tuesday, May 20. The first game will feature the No. 6-No. 7 game at 4:00pm, followed by the No. 5-No. 8 match-up at 7:00pm.
High Point garners the No. 5 seed for the second-straight year and will face No. 8 seed UNC Asheville. Radford is the No. 6 seed this year and will face No. 7 seed Charleston Southern.
Seeding of teams for the Big South Baseball Championship is first determined by the number of Conference wins, and if teams have the same number of Conference wins, the team with the higher Conference winning percentage shall receive the higher seed. Radford (6-14), Charleston Southern (6-15) and UNC Asheville (6-15) all tied with six Conference wins, but Radford received the No. 6 seed based on its higher Conference winning percentage. Charleston Southern won the head-to-head series over UNC Asheville, 2-games-to-1, to claim the higher seed of those two squads.
Tuesday’s winners will advance to the main double-elimination bracket, with the lowest remaining seed playing No. 1 Coastal Carolina Wednesday morning at 11:00am, and the highest remaining seed facing No. 2 Liberty at 3:00pm. The No. 3 VMI-No. 4 Winthrop contest is scheduled for 7:00pm. Last season, the No. 5 seed (High Point) and No. 6 seed (UNC Asheville) advanced to the main bracket.
The championship will continue with Games 4-6 on Thursday, May 22, Games 7-9 on Friday, May 23 and the championship game on Saturday, May 24 at 1:00pm. The complete Conference Championship schedule appears below, and all games will be video streamed live on the League’s premium content web site, The Big South EDGE presented by State Farm. Tournament games will be available daily via the $6.95 Day Pass — which covers all games played that respective day — or the $14.95 Full Championship Pass, which features the tournament in its entirety. In addition, real-time “Live Stats” will be available on both the League’s and Liberty’s website free of charge.
In addition to the start of main bracket play Wednesday, the Big South will announce the 2008 All-Conference teams in an on-field ceremony prior to the 3:00pm contest.
Tuesday, May 20 (Games A-B)
Game A: No. 6 seed Radford vs. No. 7 seed Charleston Southern, 4:00pm ET
Game B: No. 5 seed High Point vs. No. 8 seed UNC Asheville, 7:00pm ET
Wednesday, May 21 (Games 1-3)
Game 1: No. 1 seed Coastal Carolina vs. lowest remaining seed, 11:00am ET
Game 2: No. 2 seed Liberty vs. highest remaining seed, 3:00pm ET
Game 3: No. 3 seed VMI vs. No. 4 seed Winthrop, 7:00pm ET
Thursday, May 22 (Games 4-6)
Game 4: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 11:00am ET
Game 5: Loser Game 3 vs. Winner Game 1, 3:00pm ET
Game 6: Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3, 7:00pm ET
Friday, May 23 (Games 7-9)
Game 7: TBA vs. TBA, 11:00am ET
Game 8: TBA vs. TBA, 3:00pm ET
Game 9: TBA vs. TBA, 7:00pm ET
Saturday, May 24 (Games 10-11)
Game 10: Championship Game, 1:00pm ET
Game 11: If necessary, Championship Game (immediately following Game 10)
