Contributed
(May 22, 2010)

The Alabama State University baseball team qualified for the upcoming Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship Tournament, to be held May 26-30 in Shreveport, La., at Fairgrounds Field. The Hornets earned the No.4 seed in the Eastern Division and will face Western Division top seed Texas Southern on the opening day at 6 p.m.

With a win over TSU, Bama State would advance in the winner’s bracket to a matchup with the winner of the Mississippi Valley-Grambling State game at 6 p.m. Thursday. A loss would force the Hornets into an elimination game against the loser of the MVSU-GSU tilt Thursday at Noon.

Jackson State and Texas Southern each won their respective division titles and earned No. 1 seeds in the upcoming SWAC Baseball Tournament. Jackson State, once 2-3 in SWAC play, won its final 11 conference games to pull away from the pack in the SWAC East race.  Meanwhile, Texas Southern took four out of six games against Southern to edge the Jaguars in a head-to-head Western Division race that came down to the final weekend.

Mississippi Valley State secured the No. 2 seed in the East by winning the final two games of a three-game set against Alcorn State last weekend to move past the Braves by a half game. Alcorn is the #3 seed in the East, while Alabama State earned the final spot in the tournament from the Eastern Division.

Southern finished a half game behind Texas Southern and will carry the second seed from the West in defending its SWAC title from 2009.  Grambling earned the #3 seed, while Arkansas-Pine Bluff edged out Prairie View for the final tournament entry from the Western Division.

The tournament opens Wednesday, May 26 at Fairgrounds Field at 9:00 a.m. as Southern (#2W) will face Alcorn State (#3E) in the opening round. Mississippi Valley State (#2E) and Grambling (#3W) will battle at noon on opening day to be followed at 3:00 p.m. by Jackson State (#1E) vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff (#4W).  The final game of the opening day pits Texas Southern (#1W) against Alabama State (#4E) at 6:00 p.m.

The tournament features a double-elimination format in each of the four-team brackets with a single-game championship between the two bracket champions on Sunday, May 30 at 3:00 p.m.  The championship game will be televised live on ESPN-U.