2019 Southern Conference baseball tournament

The 2019 Southern Conference baseball tournament was held from May 21 through 26 at Fluor Field at the West End in Greenville, South Carolina. The annual event determined the conference champion of the Division I Southern Conference in college baseball. The tournament winner, Mercer Bears, earned the league's bid to the 2019 NCAA Division I baseball tournament. This was the last of 20 athletic championships held by the conference in the 2018–19 academic year.[2]

2019 Southern Conference
baseball tournament
Teams9
Formattwo bracket Double-elimination tournament
with championship game
Finals site
ChampionsMercer Bears (2nd title)
Winning coachCraig Gibson
MVPTrevor Austin ((Mercer))
TelevisionSoCon DN
ESPN+ (Championship)
2019 Southern Conference baseball standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   PCT W   L   PCT
Samford  ‍‍‍ 19 5   .792 41 19   .683
Wofford  ‍‍‍ 14 9   .609 36 25   .590
UNC Greensboro  ‍‍‍ 14 10   .583 34 20   .630
Mercer  ‍‍y 14 10   .583 35 29   .547
Furman  ‍‍‍ 13 11   .542 26 31   .456
East Tennessee State  ‍‍‍ 11 12   .478 34 21   .618
VMI  ‍‍‍ 9 15   .375 17 41   .293
Western Carolina  ‍‍‍ 8 16   .333 21 32   .396
The Citadel  ‍‍‍ 5 19   .208 12 43   .218
† – Conference champion
‡ – Tournament champion
y – Invited to the NCAA tournament
As of June 5, 2019[1]
Rankings from D1Baseball

The tournament was originally held from 1950–53, when the Southern Conference was a large conference composed of several small schools and several large schools, the latter of which would form the Atlantic Coast Conference after the 1953 season. The event was re-established in 1984 and has been held every year since. Western Carolina has claimed ten championships, the most of any school, with The Citadel close behind at eight tournament wins. Furman and defending champion Samford are the only other current schools with multiple championships, having each won two. East Tennessee State and VMI have never won a title, although they both returned to the conference in 2015 after over ten years in other conferences. Mercer claimed the conference championship in its first ever appearance in 2015.

The tournament was played in Greenville, which has hosted six of the past ten events.[3]

Seeding and format

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All nine teams participated in the tournament, with the bottom two seeds playing a single-elimination play-in round. The remaining teams then played a double-elimination tournament.[4]

Bracket

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Play-In Round

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Tuesday, May 21
Team R
#9 The Citadel 3
#8 Western Carolina 7

Double-elimination round

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Upper round 1Upper round 2Upper finalFinal
1Samford5
8Western Carolina410
1Samford11
4Mercer0
4Mercer11
5Furman2
1Samford2
2Wofford5
2Wofford12
7VMI7
2Wofford2
6East Tennessee State1
3UNC Greensboro2
6East Tennessee State42Wofford85
4Mercer129
Lower round 1Lower round 2Lower round 3Lower final
5Furman5
8Western Carolina76East Tennessee State74Mercer4
5Furman96East Tennessee State71Samford3
4Mercer11
3UNC Greensboro5
7VMI24Mercer9
3UNC Greensboro4

Conference championship

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Southern Conference Championship
(2) Wofford Terriers vs. (4) Mercer Bears
May 26, 2019, 12:00 p.m. (EDT) at Fluor Field at the West End in Greenville, South Carolina
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
(4) Mercer 3 1 4 0 0 2 2 0 0 12 14 2
(2) Wofford 2 0 0 1 0 0 4 1 0 8 14 3
WP: Sawyer Gipson-Long (8–3)   LP: Austin Higginbotham (9–4)
Home runs:
MER: None
WOFF: Andrew Orzel
Attendance: 1,094
May 26, 2019, 4:40 p.m. (EDT) at Fluor Field at the West End in Greenville, South Carolina
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
(2) Wofford 1 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 5 10 3
(4) Mercer 0 3 1 2 0 0 0 3 X 9 12 0
WP: Taylor Lobus (2–0)   LP: Jake Hershman (2–3)   Sv: Tanner Hall (1)
Home runs:
WOFF: Brett Rodriguez
MER: None
Attendance: 774

References

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  1. ^ "Southern Conference baseball standings, teams, and schedules". D1Baseball. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  2. ^ "2018-19 Southern Conference Championship Schedule". soconsports.com. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
  3. ^ "2019 Baseball Championship". Southern Conference. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
  4. ^ "2019 Southern Conference Baseball Championship Bracket" (PDF). Southern Conference. Retrieved May 25, 2019.