New Location, Top 10 Teams Highlight 2018 TSC Baseball Tournament
Donnie Smith
Tournament Program
Ballpark Map
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—Since the return of The Sun Conference Baseball Tournament in 2009, the tournament had always been held at City of Palms Park in Fort Myers.
For the first time, the tournament will be held at a different “palm.”
Keiser University hosts this year’s tournament at the brand-new FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, spring training home to the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals.
Play begins on Friday at 11 a.m. with St. Thomas taking on sixth-seeded Thomas.
Regular season champion St. Thomas, ranked third in the latest NAIA Coaches’ Top 25, is in search of their first tournament title since 2012. Since 2009, only former member and four-time champion Embry-Riddle has won more games in The Sun Conference Tournament than the Bobcats.
STU is trying to become the first regular season champion to win the tournament since Embry-Riddle did so in 2013. A powerful offense and a stellar weekend pitching staff led the Bobcats to a 22-2 mark in the league. At the plate, no team in the NAIA has more doubles (178), hits (691), runs (565), or RBIs (513) this season. St. Thomas’ gaudy .370 team batting average also leads the nation.
Conference opponents hit just .252 against the Bobcats this season, punching out 207 times in 201 innings.
Fourth-ranked Southeastern, the defending tournament champions, will take on county rival Webber International in the second game of the day.
SEU leads the NAIA in wins, and has been powered by a solid pitching staff. The Fire are the only team in all of four-year college baseball to record over 500 strikeouts this season with 541.
Southeastern has posted a 12-6 record in the tournament with titles in 2014 and 2017.
Webber posted its sixth consecutive 30+ win season, and finished third in The Sun Conference in team ERA at 3.97.
In the midst of a record-breaking season, Florida Memorial enters the tournament at the No. 3 seed, and will play just their fourth TSC postseason game since 2009. FMU takes on the host Seahawks in the final game of the first day.
The Lions rank fourth in the league in batting average at .302, and are third in opponent batting average at .260.
Under first-year head coach Brook Fordyce, the Seahawks finished third in the conference in hitting with a .328 average, and averaged almost seven RBIs per game.
Thomas University is the sixth-seed, and finished the regular season second in the conference in fielding at .959, posting 524 assists, which was second in the league. The Night Hawks were also fourth in the conference in RBIs per game at 5.94.
Play begins each day at 11 a.m. with three games each day. The championship game is slated for 11 a.m. on Monday, May 7
th, with the winner securing the league’s lone automatic bid to the NAIA World Series Opening Round.