TIFTON – The ABAC Stallions baseball team has been selected as one of the 46 teams to compete in the NAIA National Baseball Tournament. The field was announced Wednesday afternoon.

 

The Stallions will compete in the five-team regional in Lakeland, Florida, as the fourth seed. They will open play Monday against the fifth-seeded Briar Cliff, Iowa Chargers. ABAC’s game will be Monday’s first game of the day at Ted A. Broer Stadium, although no game time has been set.

If the Stallions win, they will play the regional’s top seed, Southeastern University, later on Monday. If they lose, they will play the loser of the second game of the day between Central Methodist, Mo., and Arizona Christian.

 

“I’m really proud of these guys,” ABAC head coach Blake Williams said. “They’ve competed hard all year, and I have no doubt that’s what they’ll do in Lakeland. It’s great to have a chance to play against the best teams in the country. We’re looking forward to the opportunity.”

 

The announcement capped a noteworthy year for the Stallions, who joined the rest of the ABAC athletic teams and jumped to NAIA four-year competition less than a year ago. Also, the postseason opportunity comes in Williams’s first year at the helm.

 

“It’s pretty incredible,” he said. “My assistant coaches have done a great job, the administration has given us a lot of support, and our players have represented ABAC well. I’m sure we’ll look back at some point and it will sink in. But right now, we’re going to try to keep this thing going as long as we can.”

 

The Stallions enter the national tournament with a 35-14 overall record after finishing third in the Southern States Athletic Conference. Last week in Jackson, Tennessee, the Stallions won their first two games in the SSAC tournament before falling to eventual conference champion Loyola (Louisiana) Loyola and regular-season conference champion William Carey also made the national tournament field. William Carey will host a regional in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, while Loyola will play in Waleska in a four-team regional hosted by Reinhardt University.

 

In Briar Cliff, ABAC will face a team that finished 28-22 overall and was seeded fourth in the Great Plains Athletic Conference tournament last week in Sioux City, Iowa. But the Chargers topped the number one seed Concordia in their pool play, advancing to the championship game and defeating Mount Marty 6-5. Briar Cliff hit .304 as a team with 49 home runs and a team earned run average of 6.62. By comparison, the Stallions hit .292 as a team with 52 home runs and a team ERA of 5.63.

 

An advantage ABAC will definitely have is proximity to the playoff site. While ABAC is four hours from Lakeland, Florida, the Chargers will travel a little over 1,500 miles for the regional.

 

The regional is scheduled for Monday through Wednesday with a possible game Thursday if necessary. The winners of the 10 regionals will meet in the NAIA Baseball World Series May 23-31 in Lewiston, Idaho.

 

Other notes entering the tournament include:

• ABAC is one of six programs making its debut in the event. Southern New Orleans, Ottawa (Kansas), Oregon Tech, Oakland City (Indiana), Dickinson State (North Dakota), and Johnson (Tennessee) are also first-time competitors. The Stallions faced Johnson twice during the first weekend of the season, losing 3-0 to the Royals in the season opener before defeating them 7-3 the following day at Stallion Field.
• LSU Shreveport has the most appearances of any team in the field with 16. The Pilots also enter the tournament with the best record of any college baseball team in history at 51-0.