For the sixth consecutive season and the seventh time in the last eight years, Coastal Carolina is the No. 1 seed in the 2012 Big South Baseball Championship, which will be held May 22-26 at Williard Stadium on the campus of High Point University.
The Chanticleers’ sixth-straight regular-season championship ties the Big South record and extends their overall League mark for most titles to 15.
Coastal Carolina, which finished the season with an 18-5 Conference record, will attempt to win its unprecedented sixth consecutive Tournament title next week. The Big South Tournament is now a double-elimination format and features eight squads competing for the League’s automatic berth to the NCAA Regionals — highlighted by a “winner-take-all” championship game on Saturday that will be televised live on ESPN3 at 4:00pm.
Campbell secured the No. 2 seed with its record of 15-9 in Big South play, while Liberty receives the No. 3 seed with its 14-10 League record. Gardner-Webb, Radford and UNC Asheville tied for fourth-place in the Conference standings at 12-12, and the tiebreaker procedure for multiple-team ties was used — composite records of the tying teams against each other to determine if one team won more games against the other institutions. Gardner-Webb and Radford were both 4-2, while UNC Asheville was 1-5 to fall to the No. 6 seed. With the tie being reduced back to Gardner-Webb and Radford, the Runnin’ Bulldogs claim the No. 4 seed due to winning the season series over the Highlanders, 2-games-to-1, which drops Radford to No. 5.
Tournament host High Point and Charleston Southern tied for seventh-place in the League standings at 11-13, and the Panthers receive the No. 7 seed due to winning the season series with the Buccaneers, 2-games-to-1.
The tournament begins Tuesday, May 22 with four games scheduled — No. 4 Gardner-Webb vs. No. 5 Radford at 9:30am, No. 1 Coastal Carolina vs. No. 8 Charleston Southern 45 minutes after Game 1, No. 3 Liberty vs. No. 6 UNC Asheville at 4:30pm and No. 2 Campbell vs. No. 7 High Point 45 minutes after Game 3. The bracket was adjusted to allow host High Point to play in the final game on Tuesday night.
The championship will continue with Games 5-8 on Wednesday, May 23, Games 9-10 on Thursday, May 24, Games 11-12 and any if necessary contests on Friday, May 25. The championship game will be played Saturday, May 26 at 4:00pm and will be televised live on ESPN3.
Meanwhile, the Big South will announce the 2012 All-Conference teams and annual award winners Monday evening during a special awards presentation for the teams at the Fine Arts Center on High Point’s campus.
The complete Conference Championship schedule appears below, and all games Tuesday-Friday will be video streamed live on the Big South Network presented by State Farm. Tournament games will be available daily via the $6.95 Day Pass — which covers all games played that respective day — or the $19.95 Championship Pass, which features all the tournament games played prior to Saturday. In addition, real-time “Live Stats” will be available on both the Big South’s and High Point’s website free of charge.
Tuesday, May 22 (Games 1-4)
Game 1: No. 4 Gardner-Webb vs. No. 5 Radford, 9:30am
Game 2: No. 1 Coastal Carolina vs. No. 8 Charleston Southern, 45 minutes following Game 1
Game 3: No. 3 Liberty vs. No. 6 UNC Asheville, 4:30pm
Game 4: No. 2 Campbell vs. No. 7 High Point, 45 minutes following Game 3
