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Championship Central |
Bracket
INDIANAPOLIS – The bracket is set for this week’s 2016 Great Lakes Valley Conference Baseball Championship Tournament, which will return for the second year to Grand Park in Westfield, Indiana, May 12-15. With the move to divisional play this season, the bracket now features four seeded teams from both the East and West Divisions, highlighted by No. 1E Southern Indiana and No. 1W Missouri S&T. The Screaming Eagles and Miners clinched outright East and West Division titles, respectively, over the weekend.
No. 2E Indianapolis, No. 3E Bellarmine and No. 4E Illinois Springfield have qualified for the postseason event out of the East, while No. 2W Quincy, No. 3W Rockhurst and No. 4W William Jewell will represent the West.
In addition to the divisional scheduling, the tournament moves to one primary field at Grand Park (D-3), which extends the format over the first three days to a four-game slate with times at 9 a.m., 12 p.m., 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. ET.
The tournament’s opening contest will feature No. 3E Bellarmine (24-24, 15-11 GLVC) and No. 2W Quincy (35-14, 18-10) on Thursday at 9 a.m. ET. The two teams squared off in non-conference play back on March 5-6 with the Hawks taking three of four games from the Knights in Louisville, Kentucky.
The winner of that contest will battle the winner of the No. 4W William Jewell (30-20, 15-13) and No. 1E Southern Indiana (33-17, 20-8) matchup, which will be played Thursday at 6 p.m. It was determined in a coin flip by the Conference that the East’s top seed would play in the nightcap. The Cardinals and Screaming Eagles did not meet during the regular season.
In the bottom half of the bracket, No. 3W Rockhurst (27-22, 18-10) will face No. 2E Indianapolis (32-18, 17-11) on Thursday at 12 p.m. This will be the first time the two teams have played each other this season.
In the 3 p.m. contest on Thursday, No. 4E Illinois Springfield (28-21, 15-13) will battle No. 1W Missouri S&T (34-15, 19-9). The Prairie Stars earned the final seed in the East over Lewis by way of a 2-2 record against UIndy compared to the Flyers’ 1-3 record against the Greyhounds. Missouri S&T took two out of three games at UIS in non-conference action earlier this season on March 11-12.
Tickets for the 37th annual Conference tournament are $10 for adults, $5 for students (with ID) and children, while kids 5-and-under are free. Tickets will be available at those prices all four days, while the GLVC is offering an All-Tournament pass for $35.
Each tournament game will be streamed live and free on the GLVC Sports Network, and can be accessed by logging on to
GLVCsports.com/watch. Live stats will also be available for each game and links can be found on the official tournament website,
GLVCsports.com/GLVCbase16.