FORT SMITH - The nationally-ranked UAFS baseball team finished tied for second in the Heartland Conference and has earned the No. 4 seed in this week’s Heartland Conference Tournament.
UAFS (32-17, 17-11), which was ranked No. 16 in last week’s NCBWA Division II Top 25 and No. 23 in the Collegiate Baseball Division II Top 25, finished tied with Lubbock Christian (32-18, 17-11), which swept the regular-season finale series against UAFS on Thursday and Friday at Hays Field in Lubbock, Texas.
The two teams finished one game behind conference co-champions St. Edward’s (30-19, 18-10) and St. Mary’s (34-16, 18-10), who each won their final conference series by 3-1 margins against Texas A&M International and Newman, respectively.
St. Edward’s won the tiebreaker and will be the No. 1 seed and will play No. 4 seed UAFS, which lost the tiebreaker with Lubbock Christian based on the outcome of their head-to-head series.
The Lions, who will be making their sixth tournament appearance in their seven seasons as an active NCAA Division II member, will play the Hilltoppers in the first round at 1 p.m. on Thursday at The Depot at Cleburne Station in Cleburne, Texas.
St. Mary’s received the No. 2 seed and will play No. 3 seed Lubbock Christian at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. The championship game of the double-elimination tournament will be on Saturday.
All of the tournament’s games will be broadcast on the Heartland Conference Digital Network atwww.heartlandsports.org/watch. Fans can also follow all of the tournament’s action by visiting the 2018 Heartland Baseball Tournament Central Page or going to www.heartlandsports.org/baseball18.