Baseball | 5/21/2016 8:29:00 PM
CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL
NEW ORLEANS – Georgia Southern's path through the Sun Belt Tournament has been set after seedings were announced by the league office on Saturday evening. Georgia Southern will enter the postseason as the No. 6 seed and face No. 3 seed Little Rock in the tournament opener. The Eagles are on the same side of the bracket as No. 2 seed South Alabama and No. 7 seed UT Arlington.
The Eagles were in a two-way tie for fifth place in the final standings with Texas State. The Bobcats took the tiebreaker thanks to their three game sweep over the Eagles in the regular season.
Georgia Southern's opening game is set for 10 a.m. (ET)/9 a.m. (CT) against the Trojans who defeated Georgia Southern twice in the regular season. The Eagles won the opener 3-2 behind 5.2 innings from starter
Evan Challenger. He took a no decision in the game, allowing four hits and two runs with six strikeouts.
Landon Hughes went the final 3.1 innings to take the win.
CJ Ballard's walk-off hit in the ninth won the game for the Eagles.
Georgia Southern's potential second round opponents in the tournament both lost twice to the Eagles in the regular season. The Eagles handed South Alabama a pair of losses on Friday and Saturday to take the series win, while the Eagles clawed back from a Friday night defeat to dismantle the Mavericks in games two and three.
The 2016 Tournament is hosted by Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas at Bobcat Ballpark. Games on Thursday through Sunday can be seen live on ESPN3 at WatchESPN.com. Wednesday's games can be seen online exclusively at SunBeltSports.org The Georgia Southern Sports Network will be on hand to call all the action along network lines and at GSEagles.com.
Championship festivities get underway on Tuesday night with Championship Family Night, a celebration of this season's accomplishments both on and off the field for the student-athletes in attendance. There will be a home run derby, autograph session and much more for those in attendance.
2016 SUN BELT TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Wednesday, May 25
ALL TIMES EASTERN
Game 1: - 10:00 a.m. - No. 6 Georgia Southern vs. No. 3 Little Rock
Game 2: - 1:30 p.m. - No. 7 UT Arlington vs. No. 2 South Alabama
Game 3: - 5:00 p.m. - No. 5 Texas State vs. No. 4 Troy
Game 4: - 8:30 p.m. - No. 8 Arkansas State vs. No. 1 UL Lafayette
Thursday, May 26
ALL TIMES EASTERN
Game 5: - 10:00 a.m. - Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2
Game 6: - 1:30 p.m. - Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4
Game 7: - 5:00 p.m. - Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2
Game 8: - 8:30 p.m. - Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4
Friday, May 27
ALL TIMES EASTERN
Game 9: - 4:00 p.m. - Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 7
Game 10: - 7:30 p.m. - Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 8
Saturday, May 28
ALL TIMES EASTERN
Game 11: - 10:00 a.m. - Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 9
Game 12: - 1:30 p.m. - Winner Game 8 vs. Winner Game 10
Game 13: - 5:00 p.m. - *Winner Game 11 vs. Loser Game 11
Game 14: - 8:30 p.m. - #Winner Game 12 vs. Loser Game 12
* Game 13 is necessary if the winner of Game 9 also wins Game 11.
# Game 14 is necessary if the winner of Game 10 also wins Game 12.
Championship Sunday, May 29
ALL TIMES EASTERN
Game 13: - 2:00 p.m. - Winner Game 11/13 vs. Winner Game 12/14 (ESPN3)
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics, iOS app Georgia Southern Eagles and Android app Eagles GATA. Fans can purchase tickets to Georgia Southern Athletics events by visiting GSEagles.com/Tickets.
