FRISCO ? The league office officially announced Sunday the first-round pairings for next week's Southland Conference Tournament in Huntsville. The 21st annual double-elimination postseason event will run from May 21-24 at Don Sanders Stadium on the campus of Sam Houston State.
UTSA, 38-17 overall and 22-8 in SLC play this season, is the No. 1 seed by virtue of its second consecutive regular season championship and the Roadrunners will play eighth-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (22-31-1, 14-15-1 SLC) at 4 p.m. on Wednesday. The Islanders took two of three games from the Birds from May 2-4 in Robstown. Senior right-hander Bradley Chovanec (9-3, 4.82 ERA) will square off against righty Omar Gutierrez (5-4, 3.54) in the first-round contest.
Other first-round matchups include No. 3 Texas State (29-25, 19-11) against UT Arlington (26-29, 16-14) in the 9 a.m. game, No. 2 Lamar (32-21, 20-10), this year's East Division Champion, versus No. 7 Southeastern Louisiana (29-25, 15-15) at noon and No. 4 Sam Houston State (33-23, 18-12) against No. 5 Northwestern State (28-26, 17-12) in the 7 p.m. finale.
A UTSA victory on Wednesday would vault it into Thursday's 7 p.m. winner's bracket contest against the winner of the Sam Houston State/Northwestern State game.
The Roadrunners locked up theregular-season title with a 5-2victory a week ago against Nicholls State. UTSA will be in search of its third SLCTournament Championship in school history and their second in the past four years. The Birds defeated Northwestern State, 7-6, for the 1994 titleand won the 2005 crown with a 4-1 triumph againstLamar.
You canorder tickets (all-session or single-game) through the Sam Houston State ticket office at 936/294-1729. Click here for complete ticket information.
Fans unable to attend this year's event will have a chance to view this year’s tournament through video streaming at southland.org.The entire championship event will be available for $19.95 or singlegames for $4.95 per contest. Live audio (with a Rowdy Zonesubscription) and live stats (free) also will be available for all UTSAtilts at goUTSA.com.
This year, the tournament field has expanded from six to eight teams.The top two divisional finishers and next four teams with the bestwinning percentage in SLC regular season play qualified to determinethe league's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. Seeds 1, 4, 5 and8 make up one side of the bracket while seeds 2, 3, 6 and 7 occupy theother. The winner of the two brackets will play for the conference championship on Saturday.
Southland Conference Tournament First-Round Matchups
Wednesday, May 21
No. 3 Texas State (29-25, 19-11) vs. No. 6 UT Arlington (26-29, 16-14), 9 a.m.
No. 2 Lamar (32-21, 20-10) vs. No. 7 Southeastern Louisiana (29-25, 15-15), noon
No. 1 UTSA (38-17, 22-8) vs. No. 8 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (22-31-1, 14-15-1), 4 p.m.
No. 4 Sam Houston State (33-23, 18-12) vs. No. 5 Northwestern State (28-26, 17-12), 7 p.m.
