The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team will open play in the 2017 American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament with a First Round game on Friday in Tyler. The Cru is the #5 seed and will compete in the tournament’s Blue Bracket in the opening round that features two four-team, double elimination tournaments.
UMHB will face #4 seed Concordia Texas (26-14, 16-8 ASC) in a 3:00 PM start on Friday to open the tournament. The Cru finished the regular season at 22-16 overall and 16-8 in the ASC to earn its fourth ASC Tournament berth in the last five years. UMHB also doubled last season’s victory total in earning a return trip to the postseason. The Tornados took two out of three games from the Cru in the regular season series between the two teams. UMHB’s pitching staff is led by the trio of Aaron Barteau, Nathan Kent and Casey Frazier. Barteau has two wins and 13 saves to go with a 0.69 ERA out of the bullpen. Kent leads the team with five wins and has a 2.64 ERA and Frazier is 4-0 with a 2.73 ERA after returning from injury. Third baseman Mitch Patterson is batting a team-best .336 on the season and 1B/DH Ty Johnson has team-highs with nine home runs and 32 RBI to go with a .317 batting average. Five freshmen have started ten or more games in the field for the Cru this season and freshmen have combined for 37 appearances on the mound for a young UMHB team. Tournament host and #1 seed U.T. Tyler (33-6, 21-3 ASC) will take on 8th-seeded Louisiana College (19-20, 9-15 ASC) in the Blue Bracket’s other First Round Game at 7:00 PM on Friday. The losing teams in the opening round games will face off in an elimination contest at 11:00 AM on Saturday with the two winners playing at 3:00 PM. The Championship Game of the Blue Bracket is scheduled for 1:00 PM on Sunday with the “if necessary” game to follow. U.T. Tyler will provide live video and live statistics for all of the games. You can follow the Cru in the ASC Tournament here: http://www.uttylerpatriots.com/baseball/news/2016-17/5508/tournament-central-asc-baseball-blue-bracket/.
#2 seed U.T. Dallas will host the tournament’s Red Bracket in the opening round in Richardson. The Comets (31-9, 19-5 ASC) will take on #7 seed Howard Payne (18-20, 10-14 ASC) at 3:00 PM on Friday in that bracket. The Red Bracket will open with #3 seed East Texas Baptist (27-13, 18-6 ASC) facing 6th-seeded Hardin-Simmons (19-21, 11-13 ASC) at 11:00 AM.
The winners of the Blue Bracket and Red Bracket will meet for the ASC Championship in the Gold Bracket, a best-of-three series to determine the ASC Champion. The Gold Bracket series will be play May 12-13 at the highest remaining seed and the ASC Champion will claim the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Championships.
