BATON ROUGE, La. – The Alabama State baseball team will open the 2012 Southwestern Athletic Conference baseball tournament Wednesday at Noon vs. Prairie View A&M at Southern University's Lee-Hines Field.
The game, and every Hornets' tournament game, will be broadcast live free of charge at www.bamastatesports.com/showcase.
Alabama State (20-34 overall, 14-10 SWAC) enters the tournament as the #3 seed in the Eastern Division and have taken the long road to tournament – literally.
The Hornets played a school-record 54 games this season, 35 away from the home confines of the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex. A schedule that featured contests against UC-Irvine, Auburn, and Oklahoma, along with home-and-home series against UAB, Georgia State, Kennesaw State, Jacksonville State and Mercer has taken Alabama State on the road for more than 9,000 miles roundtrip including the SWAC Tournament.
“It's been a long journey to this point, but that's what every team plays for – to have a chance to be in this position to play for a title,” head coach
Mervyl Melendez said. “Of course, there are seven other teams that will be fighting like crazy to be the one. The best team is going to win, but we're excited and we're looking forward to this tournament. We like our chances. We have to play with a lot of intensity. We are eager to get it going and get it started Wednesday.”
Alabama State has played five of the other seven teams in the tournament, but Prairie View A&M (24-22, 15-8) is not one of them. The Panthers finished second in the Western Division behind Southern.
“What we know about Prairie View is that they have played extremely well, especially in conference play,” Melendez said. “They have done a very good job. They finished in second place, but were leading the division most of the year. They have a couple of good pitchers that have thrown the ball well. We know it is going to be a tough task, and that they will be ready to play. We have to be very intense and play with a lot of energy to be able to have the result that we want.”
