INDIANAPOLIS --- The Tusculum College baseball team has moved up one spot and is ranked fifth in this week's NCAA Division II Southeast Region rankings.
Tusculum (36-16) captured a share of the 2016 Pilot/Flying J South Atlantic Conference Tournament earlier this month for the program's fourth SAC postseason crown. TC is currently riding a three-game winning streak.
Lander is the top-ranked team in the Southeast Region, while Columbus State, Belmont Abbey and USC Aiken hold down the top-four spots in the poll for a third straight week. Tusculum is fifth, followed by Georgia College, Catawba, Erskine and Newberry.
Tusculum owns a 4-3 record against teams listed in this week's Southeast Region poll. Tusculum is 2-2 against Catawba this year, while the Pioneers posted a 2-1 record in its series at Newberry last month.
TC also has a 3-1 worksheet against teams who are ranked in other regional polls, including Trevecca Nazarene (1-1), Nova Southeastern (1-0) and Lynn (1-0).
The regional ranking is used for selecting the seven-team Southeast Region Tournament, which will be held at a campus site, yet to be determined. Tournament champions of the South Atlantic Conference, Conference Carolinas and Peach Belt Conference will receive automatic berths to the NCAA postseason
Four at-large bids will also be awarded to comprise the seven-team regional, which will be held May 19-22.
Mount Olive (Conference Carolinas) and Catawba (SAC) have already claimed the automatic bids for their respective leagues. Mount Olive won the Conference Carolinas Tournament. Catawba tied Tusculum for the SAC Tournament title, but the Catawba Indians earn the league's bid by virtue of winning the regular season title. The Peach Belt Tournament is being held this week.
The official announcement of the NCAA Championship field will be made this Sunday night at 10 p.m. (EST) at NCAA.com.
- NCAA -
NCAA II Southeast Region Baseball Rankings
Rk Team Overall In-Region Prv
1 Lander 36-12 36-12 1
2 Columbus St. 37-11 33-11 2
3 Belmont Abbey 38-14-1 38-14-1 3
4 USC Aiken 36-14 36-14 4
5 TUSCULUM 36-16 36-16 6
6 Georgia College 30-16 29-16 8
7 Catawba 34-19 34-19 5
8 Erskine 36-15 29-14 7
9 Newberry 33-19-1 30-19-1 9
Tusculum Opponents in Italics
