ROCK HILL, S.C. — The Tusculum Pioneers have earned the No. 4 seed for the 2024 South Atlantic Conference Baseball Championship. Tusculum has qualified for the SAC Tournament in 23 of the last 24 seasons.
Tusculum (25-24) will face fifth-seeded Lincoln Memorial this Friday at 3 p.m. from Newman Park in Salisbury, North Carolina.
This year’s SAC Championship Tournament will be conducted over the next two weekends with the opening round taking place May 3-5 at campus sites and conclude with a best of three series on May 10-11 at McCrary Park in Asheboro, North Carolina.
Catawba claimed the top-seed and will host one half of the double-elimination opening round at historic Newman Park. Joining the Catawba Indians (37-12) will be Tusculum, LMU (30-15) and No. 8 seed Lenoir-Rhyne (30-20).
On the other half of the bracket, No. 2 Coker (31-18) will host the opening round at Tom J. New Field in Hartsville, South Carolina. The Cobras will host No. 3 Wingate (27-21), No. 6 Newberry (24-25) and No. 7 Carson-Newman (23-24) this weekend.
Wingate, Tusculum, LMU and Newberry all finished in a tie for third place in the final league standings with identical 18-12 SAC marks where a tiebreaker was needed. In this scenario, Wingate earned the No. 3 seed. The four teams tied for third didn’t play each other so a tie would be broken based on the winning percentage against the next highest seeded common opponent, which was Carson-Newman. Wingate went 2-1 against the Eagles while the others went 1-2.
The No. 4 seed was determined by a three-way tiebreaker which Tusculum won. TU, LMU and Newberry didn’t play each and the highest seeded common opponent was Wingate. Tusculum and LMU went 2-1 against the Bulldogs while Newberry was 0-3. However, Tusculum went 2-1 against the Railsplitters to break the tie.
The No. 5 seed went to LMU based on its head-to-head sweep of Newberry, who earned the No. 6 seed.
Carson-Newman and Lenoir-Rhyne tied for seventh place with the Eagles earning the No. 7 seed based on its series win against the Bears.
Tusculum will open against LMU on Friday in the tournament’s first game and will be followed by the Catawba / Lenoir-Rhyne match-up at 6:30 p.m. The double-elimination bracket will continue on Saturday and Sunday with the winner advancing to the May 10-11 SAC Championship series in Asheboro.
Tusculum went a combined 6-3 against the three teams competing in the Salisbury half of the tournament bracket. TU won all three weekend sets against Catawba (2-1), Lincoln Memorial (2-1) and Lenoir-Rhyne (2-1) during the regular season.
In their SAC Tournament history, the Pioneers have won the championship four times with the latest coming in 2016. Tusculum has won the SAC Tournament in 2005, 2008, 2012 and 2016. TU is 51-38 all-time in the SAC postseason.
2024 South Atlantic Conference Baseball Championship
Salisbury, N.C. | Newman Park
(Times are tentative and subject to change)
Friday, May 3, 2024
Game 1: No. 5 Lincoln Memorial vs No. 4 Tusculum, 3 p.m.
Game 2: No. 8 Lenoir-Rhyne vs No. 1 Catawba, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 4, 2024
Game 3: Game 1 winner vs Game 2 winner, 11 a.m.
Game 4: Game 1 loser vs Game 2 loser, 2:45 p.m.
Game 5: Game 3 loser vs Game 4 winner, 6:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 5, 2024
Game 6: Game 3 winner vs Game 5 winner, 2 p.m.
Game 7: Game 6 winner vs Game 6 loser, 5 p.m. (if necessary)
