Entering the final week of the Gulf South Conference baseball season three spots remain for the GSC Tournament. West Florida, West Alabama and Delta State have all clinched berths, while Alabama Huntsville, Lee, West Georgia and Valdosta State will all battle this weekend for the final three spots in the postseason.
The Flames will host No.17 West Florida this weekend in what will be by far their biggest series of their season. Coach Mark Brew's club was 1-7 in GSC play until Ben Holland hit a walk-off homer against West Georgia on March 6.
"Since that moment we have been 17-3 in conference play (all 3 losses by one run) and 23-5 overall, (four of those five losses by one run)," explained Brew as his team heads into the weekend series.
"It's been impressive to me to watch this team take control of the season and turn it around. We have had lots of heroes step up along the way and I am excited to see how things play out this weekend."
Due to predicted thunderstorms late Saturday and early Sunday in the Bradley County area, the Lee, West Florida series has been moved to a single game on Friday (6 p.m.) and the doubleheader is slated for a 1 p.m. opening pitch on Saturday.
The Flames are 23-7 in their last 30 contests, which also includes six-straight conference series wins. The Flames are hitting .305, scoring 7.1 runs-per-game and lead the league in team home runs (58).
The Argonauts (Pensacola, Fla.) will look to slow the Lee offense with a GSC-best 2.92 ERA, while the team is hitting a combined .308. The series will also peg two of the more defensive-sound teams in the conference. Lee has turned 43 double plays and UWF has a .969 fielding percentage.
Below are the possible final records of the seven teams still eligible for the GSC Tournament if they complete their entire three-game series this weekend. This will allow teams to track potential seeding heading into the weekend. Additionally, head-to-head and multiple team tiebreakers are listed below the table.
Couple of straight forward scenarios that exist:
· UWF clinches the #1 seed and hosting opportunity for the tournament with a win OR one loss from UWA AND DSU.
· Lee clinches berth with win AND VSU loss.
· UWG clinches berth with win AND VSU loss.
"It's a crazy scenario when you go into the last weekend and can finish anywhere from second to seventh in the conference," said Brew as he looked over the scenarios. "The good thing for us is we control our own destiny.
"Win the series against West Florida and we will be in the tournament. Anything less, then we will have to see what happens in other parks around the GSC on Sunday afternoon. This team has battled to put themselves in position to garner a spot in the conference tournament. We simply need to continue to do what we have done well recently."