CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – No. 29 Texas State will be the top seed in the 2009 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament when it begins Wednesday at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Bobcats claimed their third regular-season championship and their first outright title last weekend after finishing the regular season with a 38-14 overall record and 24-7 mark in conference play.
Texas State will play No. 8 seed Stephen F. Austin, which finished the season 23-30 overall and 14-18 conference play. That game will be Wednesday at 4 p.m. Lamar and UT Arlington are the other two teams on that side of the bracket. The Cardinals drew the No. 4 seed and the Mavericks are the No. 5 seed and will play at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Lamar finished 36-20 overall and 20-13 in the Southland while UT Arlington finished 29-24 and 19-13. The winners of those two games advance to play Thursday at 7 p.m., while the losers will move to the loser’s bracket and will meet at noon on Thursday.
The tournament gets underway Wednesday at 9 a.m. when No. 3 seed UTSA will square off against No. 6 Northwestern State. UTSA finished 31-22 overall and 20-12 in the Southland while the Demons were 26-24 overall and 18-13 in league play. The other half of the bracket pits No. 2 seed Southeastern Louisiana with No. 7 seed Sam Houston State, which is the two-time defending tournament champion. That game will be played Wednesday at noon. Southeastern Louisiana finished 35-20 overall and 21-12 in the conference while the Bearkats were 32-22 overall and 18-14 in league action. The winners of these two games advance to play Thursday at 4 p.m. while the losers will play Thursday at 9 a.m.
The schedule has four games on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Two “if-necessary” games would be played Saturday before the championship game, which will be played at 6 p.m.
