SSAC News
Mon, May 8, 2006 - [Baseball]
Montgomery, Ala.—The Auburn University Montgomery baseball complex will be the site of the NAIA Region XIII Tournament beginning Wednesday May 10 and running through Saturday, May 13.
The sixth ranked Senators, regular season champions of the Southern States Athletic Conference will be the host for the event. For head coach Q.V. Lowe, he sees this as a great tournament filled with great teams. “The tournament will feature some of the best teams from around the South,” Lowe said. “The baseball will be as good as there is in the country.”
That assumption is correct as all six teams are either currently ranked or have been during the course of the season. In the last NAIA poll released May 3, the Senators continued their run among the top 10 teams in the nation as they were ranked sixth. Belhaven (Miss.), winner of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference regular season championship, was ranked 13th and Lee University was ranked 18th.
Berry College, winner of the SSAC tournament and LSU-Shreveport, winner of the GCAC tournament have been ranked or receiving votes during the season as has Georgia Southwestern (30-23) of the SSAC.
Both of these conferences had very competitive seasons as AUM (4215) won the SSAC championship by one game over Lee (40-16) on the final weekend of the season by sweeping Berry College (33-24) on the road. The GCAC was the same way as Belhaven (41-18) was able to win their championship by two games over LSUS (37-20) on the final weekend of play.
Then to show the competition, Berry College who finished seventh in the SSAC regular season, won the SSAC tournament to win the automatic bid and LSUS came back to win the GCAC tournament to gain the other automatic bid. Lee University and Georgia Southwestern State College received the two at-large bids.
“The winner of this region will have a great chance of competing in the NAIA World Series,” Lowe said. “When people think of college baseball around here, they only think of Alabama or Auburn, but they often forget that the NAIA has players that are just as good. The NAIA produces major league baseball talent year-in and year-out.”
The seedings will be announced Monday and will be released later that day. The tournament will consist of three games on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The game times will be noon, 3:30 and 7:00. On Saturday, the championship game will be played beginning at noon, with one game to follow at 3:30 if it is needed. The winner of the region will move on to play in the super regional which will be held at a site yet to be determined in Florida.
The first round games will begin at noon on Wednesday as third seed Lee will face fourth seed LSU-Shreveport. The 3:30 p.m. game will have second seed Belhaven against fifth seed Georgia Southwestern and the final game of the evening at 7 p.m. will have top seeded AUM facing sixth seeded Berry.
The sixth ranked Senators, regular season champions of the Southern States Athletic Conference will be the host for the event. For head coach Q.V. Lowe, he sees this as a great tournament filled with great teams. “The tournament will feature some of the best teams from around the South,” Lowe said. “The baseball will be as good as there is in the country.”
That assumption is correct as all six teams are either currently ranked or have been during the course of the season. In the last NAIA poll released May 3, the Senators continued their run among the top 10 teams in the nation as they were ranked sixth. Belhaven (Miss.), winner of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference regular season championship, was ranked 13th and Lee University was ranked 18th.
Berry College, winner of the SSAC tournament and LSU-Shreveport, winner of the GCAC tournament have been ranked or receiving votes during the season as has Georgia Southwestern (30-23) of the SSAC.
Both of these conferences had very competitive seasons as AUM (4215) won the SSAC championship by one game over Lee (40-16) on the final weekend of the season by sweeping Berry College (33-24) on the road. The GCAC was the same way as Belhaven (41-18) was able to win their championship by two games over LSUS (37-20) on the final weekend of play.
Then to show the competition, Berry College who finished seventh in the SSAC regular season, won the SSAC tournament to win the automatic bid and LSUS came back to win the GCAC tournament to gain the other automatic bid. Lee University and Georgia Southwestern State College received the two at-large bids.
“The winner of this region will have a great chance of competing in the NAIA World Series,” Lowe said. “When people think of college baseball around here, they only think of Alabama or Auburn, but they often forget that the NAIA has players that are just as good. The NAIA produces major league baseball talent year-in and year-out.”
The seedings will be announced Monday and will be released later that day. The tournament will consist of three games on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The game times will be noon, 3:30 and 7:00. On Saturday, the championship game will be played beginning at noon, with one game to follow at 3:30 if it is needed. The winner of the region will move on to play in the super regional which will be held at a site yet to be determined in Florida.
The first round games will begin at noon on Wednesday as third seed Lee will face fourth seed LSU-Shreveport. The 3:30 p.m. game will have second seed Belhaven against fifth seed Georgia Southwestern and the final game of the evening at 7 p.m. will have top seeded AUM facing sixth seeded Berry.
