It’s a brand-new season for Southern baseball, but it could be as short as two days as the Southwestern Athletic Conference moves into the league tournament to determine a representative in the NCAA tournament.
The Jaguars enter as the West Division No. 4 seed and will play Florida A&M, the No. 1 seed from the East, in a first-round game at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Russ Chandler Stadium in Atlanta.
The double-elimination tournament begins with a 9 a.m. game between the East No. 2 seed Bethune-Cookman and West 3 seed Prairie View. West 2 seed Grambling plays East 3 seed Alabama State at noon, and West 1 seed Texas Southern plays East 4 seed Jackson State at 3 p.m. The championship game is set for Sunday at 1 p.m.
A victory for Southern (22-27) would put the Jaguars in a second-round game against the Grambling-Alabama State winner at 6 p.m. Thursday. If Southern loses, the Jaguars would play at noon against the Grambling-Alabama State loser.
Because of poor weather conditions, Southern has played only one game in the last 10 days, a 19-4 loss to Grambling at home on May 16. Southern played Florida A&M in a nonconference game at the Andre Dawson Classic at Vero Beach, Fla., on Feb. 25 and lost 16-1 in a seven-inning contest.
The Jaguars are led offensively by infielder KJ White, who is batting .376. Center fielder Tyeler Hawkins is batting .366 with a team-best nine homers and 45 RBIs. Right fielder Khyle Radcliffe is batting .333 with five homers and 45 RBIs.
Southern likely will start Ranard Grace against Florida A&M. Grace has been the Jaguars’ Friday starter all season with a 6-2 record and a 5.72 ERA. Drew Lasseigne (5-4, 5.66) is the likely Game 2 starter.
Florida A&M (27-25) won the East with a 22-8 conference record, 2½ games ahead of Bethune-Cookman. The Rattlers boast the league's second-best team ERA (5.50) and fourth-best team batting average (.301). Their 56 homers are second only to Alabama State's 58.
Ty Jackson leads the Rattlers offensively with a .373 batting average and has eight homers with 37 RBIs. Second baseman True Fontenot is hitting .344 with four homers and 42 RBIs.
The Jaguars are likely to face one of the top pitchers in the league in Caleb Granger, who has a 10-2 record with a 2.97 ERA. He has 68 strikeouts in 81⅔ innings pitched.