Conference tournament ticket punched
Its a baseball fans favorite time of the year, the final race to the end of the regular season. Watching teams at the top jockey for position heading into the postseason.
If you’re the type of fan that loves that kind of suspense mentioned above then you would love what is going on with the Missouri Southern baseball team. Southern (31-16, 21-15 MIAA) is currently sitting as the fifth seed in the conference standings. Just a few short weeks ago, the Lions were desperately needing to move up the standings. So all they’ve done is go on a run that included winning five of their last seven conference games, which has put them in an ideal spot to climb as high as the third seed in the conference.
The Lions travel to Tahlequah, Okla. to face Northeastern State University in the final series of the regular season. This is a big series for Southern because they trail Missouri Western by one game and Emporia State by three games for the third seed in the conference tournament. If the Lions come back from Okla. with a three game sweep of NSU and Emporia State gets swept, then Southern could get the three seed over Emporia State by tiebreaker.
Now you are probably wondering what is the difference between the three seed and the five seed and why I’m making such a big deal out of them fighting for the higher seed. In the tournament the higher the seed the weaker the team you play. And based on the strength of their first opponent the Lions may decide to save Payton Walker and Cody Hutchinson for games against better quality opponents. With a higher seed it’ll give Southern many more options for the tournament if they have a easier first round opponent.
This is the stretch of the season that most fans and players love. It’s the time where all the early morning workouts, long bus rides, and endless practices pay off.
No matter what seed the Lions get, you can be certain that they’ll make some noise in the tournament this year.
Who knows, maybe they’ll win the whole thing again this year.
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