As was the case at the SEC tournament, the Sun Belt Conference baseball tournament is dealing with weather delays. So much so that the league has been forced to alter its schedule in Montgomery, Alabama.
The tournment will now shift to a single-elimination format beginning on Friday. According to the SBC, the decision was made following a significant weather delay on Wednesday and in consideration of Thursday’s weather forecast. The games committee must be confident that the double-elimination bracket would be completed prior to Sunday’s NCAA automatic qualifier deadline—and based on Wednesday’s weather delay and Thursday’s weather forecast it was not confident it could see that bracket to completion, necessitating the change to a single-elimination format.
3rd seeded Coastal Carolina will begin play on Friday against the 6th seed (and tournament host) Troy Trojans at 10am ET. The semifinals will take place on Saturday with the championship game slated for Sunday at 2pm ET.
At the Southern Conference tournament in Greenville, The Citadel split a pair of games on Wednesday, beating ETSU 3-1 before falling to UNCG 7-6. Cameron Reeves was lights out for the Bulldogs against East Tennessee, tossing a complete game against the Bucs. The sophomore from Rock Hill recorded eight strikeouts to earn the victory.
Against UNCG, the Bulldogs allowed four runs in the bottom of the 9th to drop the one-run contest to the Spartans. The Citadel will play again on Thursday against a TBD opponent at 7:30pm. Meantime, regular season champ Wofford will square off with UNCG at 9am to begin the day in Greeenville.
The College of Charleston will open their portion of the CAA baseball tournament on Thursday as the Cougars meet Northeastern at 3pm in Elon, North Carolina. The College enters the tournament at 36-17 overall, after winning the CAA regular season championship with a 19-5 league mark.
At the Big South tournament, Charleston Southern blew past High Point 14-3. Evan Truitt worked six solid innings for CSU, allowing two runs on three hits with eight strikeouts. Charleston Southern remains in the winner’s bracket and will meet top-seeded Campbell on Thursday at 11am in High Point, North Carolina. USC Upstate will also play on Thursday as they’ll get Gardner-Webb at 3pm.
