2018 Southern Conference Baseball Tournament

The 2018 Southern Conference Baseball Tournament was held from May 22 through May 27 at Fluor Field at the West End in Greenville, South Carolina. The annual event determines the conference champion of the Southern Conference (SoCon) in NCAA Division I college baseball. Samford won their second tournament championship and earned the league's bid to the 2018 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. This was the last of 20 athletic championships held by the conference in the 2017–18 academic year.[2]

2018 Southern Conference
Baseball Tournament

Teams	9
Format	two bracket Double-elimination tournament with championship game
Finals site	Fluor Field at the West End Greenville, SC
Champions	Samford (2nd title)
Winning coach	Casey Dunn (2nd title)
MVP	Brooks Carlson, Samford
Television	SoCon DN

2018 Southern Conference baseball standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
UNC Greensboro  ‍‍‍	18	–	3		.857			37	–	13		.740
Samford  ‍‍‍	16	–	8		.667			32	–	24		.571
Wofford  ‍‍‍	15	–	9		.625			35	–	21		.625
VMI  ‍‍‍	12	–	12		.500			26	–	25		.510
Mercer  ‍‍‍	11	–	13		.458			35	–	20		.636
East Tennessee State  ‍‍‍	11	–	13		.458			27	–	23		.540
Furman  ‍‍‍	9	–	12		.429			24	–	26		.480
The Citadel  ‍‍‍	8	–	16		.333			19	–	33		.365
Western Carolina  ‍‍‍	5	–	19		.208			7	–	45		.135
‡ – Tournament champion As of May 19, 2018[1]; Rankings from Collegiate Baseball

The tournament was originally held from 1950-53, when the SoCon was a large conference composed of several small schools and several large schools, the latter of which would form the Atlantic Coast Conference after the 1953 season. The event was re-established in 1984 and has been held every year since. Defending champion Western Carolina has claimed ten championships, the most of any school, with The Citadel close behind at eight tournament wins. Furman is the only other school current school with multiple championships, having won two. East Tennessee State and VMI have never won a title, although they both returned to the conference in 2015 after over ten years in other conferences. Mercer claimed the conference championship in its first ever appearance in 2015.

The tournament was played in Greenville, which had hosted five of the previous nine events.[3]

Seeding and format

All nine teams participated in the tournament, with the bottom two seeds playing a single-elimination play-in round. The remaining teams were then divided into two brackets and played double-elimination tournaments.[4]

Team	W	L	Pct	GB	Seed
UNC Greensboro	15	3	.833	-	1
Samford	12	6	.667	3	2
Wofford	11	7	.611	4	3
VMI	10	8	.556	5	4
East Tennessee State	9	9	.500	6	5
Mercer	10	11	.476	6.5	6
Furman	7	11	.389	8	7
The Citadel	6	12	.333	9	8
Western Carolina	4	17	.190	12.5	9

Bracket

Play-In Round

Tuesday, May 22

Team	R
#9 Western Carolina	6
#8 The Citadel	5

Double-elimination round

	First Round					Second Round					Third Round					Semifinals					Finals
	Winner's Bracket
	1	UNC Greensboro	2
	9	Western Carolina	10
						9	Western Carolina	0
						5	Mercer	15^7
	4	VMI	0
	5	Mercer	19^7
											5	Mercer	3
											2	Samford	10
	3	Wofford	8^10
	6	East Tennessee State	6
						2	Samford	4
						3	Wofford	0
	2	Samford	4
	7	Furman	0																		2	Samford	12	—
																					5	Mercer	4	—
	Loser's Bracket
	1	UNC Greensboro	11
	4	VMI	7			1	UNC Greensboro	15
						3	Wofford	7
											1	UNC Greensboro	4
	6	East Tennessee State	5								9	Western Carolina	8			5	Mercer	10
	7	Furman	2			6	East Tennessee State	8								9	Western Carolina	2
						9	Western Carolina	11

References

1. "Baseball standings". SoConSports.com. Retrieved November 6, 2017.
2. "2017-18 Southern Conference Championship Schedule". soconsports.com. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
3. "2018 Baseball Championship". Southern Conference. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
4. "2018 Southern Conference Baseball Championship Bracket" (PDF). Southern Conference. Retrieved November 13, 2017.