LAKELAND, Fla.—Fire baseball begins play in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round this evening in Upland, Ind. in the five-team bracket hosted by Taylor University.
This marks the seventh time Southeastern has made the opening round and is doing so as a No. 1 seed for the fifth time.
Monday night, the Fire will look for their 10
th consecutive win in the opening round dating back to the World Series run in 2018 when it takes on either fourth-seeded Columbia (Mo.) or Bryan (Tenn.) at 7 p.m.
Southeastern enters the 46-team championship field ranked No. 1 in the final NAIA Coaches' Top 25 with a 51-3 overall record and are fresh off winning The Sun Conference Tournament title for the second time in as many years. The Fire were also the regular season champions again, marking the first time since 2011 a Sun Conference team went back-to-back as regular season and tournament champions.
At the plate,
Sam Faith was named the tournament most valuable player after posting a .563 average in the four games with four RBIs. As a team, the Fire hit .413 as a group with a .489 on-base percentage and a .665 slugging percentage, fueled by 12 doubles and nine homers in four games. The pitching staff went 4-0 with a 3.25 ERA over the weekend with nobody appearing in more than one game and allowed just 32 hits over 36 innings.
Bryan and Columbia will face off at noon Monday with the winner taking on SEU.
Columbia is making its third opening round appearance after receiving an at-large bid with a 38-12 record this season. The Cougars are 16-3 on the road and 3-3 in neutral site games. In five of their last seven games, the Cougars have 10 or more hits.
Bryan is 27-26 this season and received the second automatic bid from the Appalachian Athletic Conference by making the tournament championship against Tennessee Wesleyan. The Lions have won 10 of their last 15 games.
The Lions were also in SEU's opening round last year hosted by the Fire at Chain O' Lakes in Winter Haven but the two teams never crossed paths. The last meeting between the two teams came in 2015 during the Daytona Beach Bracket of the opening round won by the Lions 4-2 and eliminating the Fire.
Monday's winner advances to play at 3:30 on Tuesday in the double-elimination tournament. The three remaining teams after Tuesday will play Wednesday with the final game of the elimination bracket at 3 p.m. and the possible championship game at 6:30 p.m. The if necessary game would be played at noon on Thursday.
To keep up with all the action in the Hoosier State, visit the
Tournament Central page which will have links to the updated schedule, live stats, and live video.
