ROCK HILL, S.C. --- For a 20th consecutive year, the Tusculum University baseball team has qualified for the South Atlantic Conference postseason and will be the No. 4 seed at the 2019 Pilot/Flying J SAC Championship. The eight-team, five-day championship is being held at Smokies Stadium in Kodak, Tennessee from Apr. 25-29.
The Pioneers (30-19) will face No. 3 seed Catawba College (38-12 / No. 11 in NCAA Division II) on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
The SAC Championship begins on Thursday with two single-elimination games as No. 5 seed Wingate (30-16) takes on No. 8 Coker (16-27-1), followed by No. 6 Carson-Newman (31-17) and No. 7 Anderson (19-29). The winners of those two contests advance to the double-elimination portion of the tournament which starts on Friday.
Top-seeded Newberry College (38-12 / No. 10 in NCAA II) , who captured the program's first-ever SAC Championship this season, will face the lowest seeded team of Thursday's winners at noon on Friday, while No. 2 seed Lincoln Memorial University (32-15 / No. 30 in NCAA II) will take on the highest seeded survivor from the single-elimination round on Friday at 3:45 p.m.
Tusculum swept last weekend's SAC series with Lenoir-Rhyne to finish tied for third in the final conference standings with Catawba. Tusculum and Catawba did not play against each other in the regular season and the Pioneers did not play Newberry. The tiebreaker came down to head-to-head record with LMU as Catawba went 2-1 against the Railsplitters and TU posted 1-2 record.
Tournament play will continue on Saturday and Sunday with the Championship game slated for 1 p.m. Monday afternoon. The winner of the Pilot/Flying J SAC Baseball Championship will receive the league's automatic bid to next month's NCAA Division II Tournament.
In their SAC Tournament history, the Pioneers have won the championship four times with the last coming in 2016 as TU and Catawba shared the tournament crown. The Pioneers have won the SAC Tournament in 2005, 2008, 2012 and 2016. Tusculum is 50-32 all-time in SAC postseason play including an 8-7 record against Catawba.
2019 Pilot / Flying J SAC Baseball Championship
Smokies Stadium | Kodak, Tenn.
Thursday, April 25, 2019 (single-elimination)
Game 1: No. 5 Wingate vs. No. 8 Coker, 4:30 p.m.
Game 2: No. 6 Carson-Newman vs. No. 7 Anderson, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 26, 2019 (double-elimination begins)
Game 3: No. 1 Newberry vs. lowest seed from Games 1 & 2, 12 p.m.
Game 4: No. 2 Lincoln Memorial vs highest seed from Game 1 & 2, 3:45 p.m.
Game 5: No. 3 Catawba vs. No. 4 Tusculum, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Game 6: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 loser, Noon
Game 7: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 loser, 3:45 p.m.
Game 8: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 28, 2019
Game 9: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 12 p.m.
Game 10: Game 6 winner vs. Game 8 loser, 3:45 p.m.
Game 11: Game 10 winner vs. Game 9 loser, 7:30 p.m.
Monday, April 29, 2019
Game 12: Game 9 winner vs. Game 11 winner, 1 p.m.
Game 13: Game 12 winner vs. Game 12 loser, 4 p.m. (if necessary)