Tuesday, May 17, 2011

MACON, Ga. - In eight days, the Atlantic Sun will conduct its Baseball Championship from Ken Dugan Field on the campus of Lipscomb University. Today we take a look at the two schools in the best position to claim the final two spots.

MERCER BEARS
Magic Number to Clinch: 1
Seed Scenarios: No. 3, No. 4, No. 5 or No. 6
Record/A-Sun Record: 33-17 (15-11, Atlantic Sun)
Boyd's World RPI/Warren Nolan RPI: 68/74
Remaining A-Sun Schedule: Home vs ETSU (Thursday, 6:00 pm; Friday, 6:00 pm; Saturday, 1:00pm)

Season in Review: The reigning A-Sun champions have worked their way back inside the top six in standings thanks to consecutive sweeps against Lipscomb and USC Upstate over the previous two weekends. They close with three games against ETSU, a school they beat twice en route to claiming the 2010 title. The potent Bear offense ranks in the top five nationally in total bases (second, 898), home runs (third, 71), runs (fourth, 403) and slugging percentage (fourth, .500). Tournament MVP and All-American Jacob Tanis ranks sixth in the country with 68 RBI and in just three seasons has already cracked the conference's all-time top 10 list.

BELMONT BRUINS
Magic Number to Clinch: 2
Seed Scenarios: No. 3, No. 4, No. 5 or No. 6
Record/A-Sun Record: 28-23 (15-12, Atlantic Sun)
Boyd's World RPI/Warren Nolan RPI: 111/109
Remaining A-Sun Schedule: Road at No. 17 Stetson (Thursday, 6:30 pm; Friday, 6:30 pm; Saturday, 1:00pm)

Season in Review: On April 2, the Bruins stood at 13-15 and 3-8 in conference play and in 10th place in the standings - a full 3 1/2 games in back of sixth place. Starting that following day with the series wrap up against Jacksonville, Belmont has run off 12 wins in its subsequent 16 league games to leapfrog FGCU, UNF, USC Upstate and Lipscomb into sixth place. Over that span, only league champion Stetson owns a better A-Sun record (13-2). The Bruins have ridden the arm of Matt Hamann. His seven wins ranks one of the league lead and his ERA of 2.26 ranks second. The Bruins face a closing challenge in traveling to Stetson to close out the A-Sun season. 

Tomorrow we preview the one team still alive for making the field but in need of some help, FGCU.