SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Seeding for the 2022 Southern Conference Baseball Championship presented by Holston Gases was announced late Saturday night by the league office. The eight-team tournament begins Wednesday, May 25, at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C. Regular-season champion Wofford, the coaches and media's preseason pick to win the league, has claimed the top seed in the tournament, which is slated for May 25-29.
All eight Southern Conference teams will participate in the tournament with the bottom four seeds – No. 5 through No. 8 – raising the curtain on the event with a pair of single-elimination games on Wednesday, May 25. The fifth and eighth seeds meet at 3 p.m., followed by the sixth and seventh seeded teams playing at 7 p.m. for the right to advance to the double-elimination portion of the bracket.
The championship game will take place Sunday, May 29, at 12 p.m., with a second game, if necessary, to begin 40 minutes after the completion of the first contest.
The SoCon tournament begins Wednesday at 3 p.m. with fifth-seeded ETSU (30-20, 11-10 SoCon) taking on No. 8 The Citadel (26-28, 5-16) for the chance to advance to face No. 4-seeded UNCG (28-27, 12-9) on Thursday at 3 p.m. That single-elimination game will be followed by sixth-seeded Western Carolina (25-29-1, 9-11-1) facing off against No. 7 VMI (16-39, 6-15) later that day at 7 p.m. for the chance to advance to face No. 3-seeded Samford (26-27, 12-9), the 2021 SoCon champion, on Thursday at 7 p.m.
When The Citadel and ETSU met in the regular-season series finale in Johnson City, Tenn., it was the Buccaneers who claimed two of the three matchups. Western Carolina won two of three games against VMI in the teams' regular-season meeting in April on post in Lexington, Va.
Wofford (40-14-1, 16-4-1) clinched a 19-2 victory over the Keydets on Thursday to lock up the regular-season title and eventually went on to earn the series sweep over VMI in the final regular-season series to secure its sixth sweep of the 2022 campaign. The Terriers, who finished third in the 2021 SoCon tournament, clinched their second straight regular-season title for the first time in program history. Wofford is the first SoCon school to win consecutive regular-season titles since Mercer won three-straight from 2015-17.
Friday's slate of games will begin at 9 a.m. with top-seeded Wofford facing off against the winner of game three followed by No. 2 Mercer (39-16, 12-9) facing off against the winner of game four at 12:30 p.m. before the day eventually concludes with a pair of elimination contests at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The remaining teams will compete in a trio of games on Saturday, which are scheduled for 12 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.
The tournament winner earns the league's automatic bid to a NCAA Baseball Regional. All tournament games will be broadcast live on ESPN+ (
paid subscription required) with WCU's games scheduled to be broadcast on the Catamount Sports Network with live streaming audio online at CatamountSports.com.
Western Carolina Athletics is scheduled to
host a special pre-tournament Facebook LIVE event with Catamount head baseball coach
Bobby Moranda on
Monday, May 23, beginning at 11 a.m. on the WCU Athletics official Facebook page. A complete preview of WCU's journey to the 2022 SoCon Baseball Championship, as well as the official SoCon baseball postseason awards will be released on Tuesday, May 24.
May 25 (Wednesday)
SoCon Baseball Championship presented by Holston Gases (ESPN+)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 1: #5 ETSU vs. #8 The Citadel, 3 p.m.
Game 2: #6 Western Carolina vs. #7 VMI, 7 p.m.
May 26 (Thursday)
SoCon Baseball Championship presented by Holston Gases (ESPN+)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 3: Winner Game 1 vs. #4 UNCG, 3 p.m.
Game 4: Winner Game 2 vs. #3 Samford, 7 p.m.
May 27 (Friday)
SoCon Baseball Championship presented by Holston Gases (ESPN+)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 5: Winner Game 3 vs. #1 Wofford, 9 a.m.
Game 6: Winner Game 4 vs. #2 Mercer, 12:30 p.m.
Game 7: Loser Game 4 vs. Loser Game 5, 4 p.m.
Game 8: Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 6, 7:30 p.m.
May 28 (Saturday)
SoCon Baseball Championship presented by Holston Gases (ESPN+)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 9: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, Noon
Game 10: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 3:30 p.m.
Game 11: Winner Game 10 vs. Loser Game 9, 7 p.m.
May 29 (Sunday)
SoCon Baseball Championship presented by Holston Gases (ESPN+)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 12: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 11, Noon
Game 13: Game 12 winner vs. Game 12 loser (
if necessary), 40 minutes after Game 12
