ROCK HILL, SC – The Winthrop baseball team has earned the No. 2 seed for the 2009 Royal Purple Big South Baseball Championship held next week at McCormick Field in Asheville, NC.
It is the fifth time in six seasons that the Eagles have received the No. 2 seed in the Big South Tournament.
“I am very proud of my players for earning the second seed in the Big South Tournament,” said head coach Joe Hudak. “We had two very tough weekends, getting swept at Liberty and losing two of three at home to VMI, that put us in a difficult spot. Our players responded extremely well by winning five straight conference games. It has truly been a team effort. It is fitting that we clinched second place with three starters on the bench due to injuries.”
Winthrop will play Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m. against a team later to be determined. The top four seeds all receive a first round bye, while the remaining four seeds will play in a single elimination round on Tuesday, May 19. The No. 1 seed will play the lowest remaining seed after the play-in round, while the Eagles will play the highest seed. The No. 3 and No. 4 seeds will play in the third game on Wednesday.
“It is certainly a huge advantage to be the second seed rather than the third,” Hudak said. “Our first game in the tournament will be against a team that has already had to play a play-in game and use their number one pitcher. “Had we been the third seed, we would be playing the fourth seed in their first game and face their number one pitcher.”
The tournament will last through Saturday, May 23 with the championship round being played on that day. The champion will earn the conference’s automatic seed into the NCAA Regionals beginning on May 29.
“This team has been very resilient all year,” added Hudak. “Each time we have gone through a difficult stretch, we have been able to respond positively. Hopefully, we can keep it going through the conference tournament.”
The tournament schedule is as follows:
Tuesday, May 19 (Games A-B)
Game A: No. 6 seed High Point vs. No. 7 seed Charleston Southern, 4:00pm ET
Game B: No. 5 seed Gardner-Webb vs. No. 8 seed VMI, 7:00pm ET
Wednesday, May 20 (Games 1-3)
Game 1: No. 1 seed Coastal Carolina vs. lowest remaining seed, 11:00am ET
Game 2: No. 2 seed Winthrop vs. highest remaining seed, 3:00pm ET
Game 3: No. 3 seed Liberty vs. No. 4 seed Radford, 7:00pm ET
Thursday, May 21 (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 22 (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 23 (Games 10-11)
Game 10: Championship Game, 1:00pm ET
Game 11: If necessary, Championship Game (immediately following Game 10)
