TYLER, Texas – The Concordia Baseball team prepares for the first round of the American Southwest Conference Tournament, facing Mary Hardin-Baylor in game one on Thursday.
The first round is double-elimination, consisting of the top eight teams in the conference, split into two brackets with the top two seeds serving as the host sites.
The blue bracket features top-seeded UT Tyler, the Tornados as the fourth-seed, fifth-seeded UMHB, and eighth-seeded Louisiana College. UT Dallas, meanwhile, is the second seed and the host site for the red bracket along with third-seeded East Texas Baptist, sixth-seeded Hardin-Simmons and seventh-seeded Howard Payne. Head Coach
Tommy Boggs is happy for CTX to be in the ASC Tournament for the seventh straight year.
"Well we're excited like we always are, it is seven straight years we have been in it," Boggs said. "We look forward to it at the first of the year, every year, of going to the playoffs, so we're excited about being in it and hopefully we can come out of this first round."
The Tornados will rely on ace
Matthew Brown and hard-throwing reliever
Justin Traxler, who have a combined 10-5 record on the year with 84 strikeouts total.
Matthew Williams, in his first year with CTX, is 5-2 in 12 games started and has a .234 opposing batting average.
In the batter's box, meanwhile, the Tornados have four hitters batting over .350, led by
Casen Novak' .369 average.
Bret Leiferman leads the team in runs scored and runs batted in with 37 and 30 respectively, while
Jake Valadez has a team-high four home runs on the season. On the base paths, CTX ranks sixth in the nation with 97 stolen bases, led by
Race Mellman's 20 steals on the season.
The Tornados will face the Cru from Irwin Field on Thursday at 3 p.m. The winners from the blue and red brackets will meet in a best-of-three series championship bracket hosted by the higher seed beginning on May 12 with the winner of the series crowned the ASC champion and receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship.
