By Adam MacDonald
VALDOSTA — Late Sunday night the Valdosta State Blazers found out that their baseball season will continue.
The NCAA announced the teams that will participate in the eight different regionals around the country on Sunday night, and the Blazers (41-19) are in the mix.
VSU is the No. 7 seed in the South Regional which will be played in Magnolia, Ark., starting on Thursday. The Blazers’ first round opponent in the double elimination regional is No. 2 Barry (44-9). The two teams will play Thursday at a time to be determined.
The other first round matchups are No. 1 Southern Arkansas vs. No. 8 Stillman, No. 3 West Alabama vs. No. 6 Florida Southern and No. 4 Tampa vs. No. 5 Lynn.
Stillman got the automatic bid for winning the SIAC, Barry got the bid for winning the Sunshine State Conference and Southern Arkansas got the automatic bid for winning the Gulf South Conference. Southern Arkansas is the host school.
West Alabama, Tampa, Lynn, Florida Southern and the Blazers received at-large bids.
If the Blazers win their game against Barry they will play the winner of West Alabama/Florida Southern on Friday in the winner’s bracket. If the Blazers lose against Barry they will play the loser of West Alabama/Florida Southern on Friday in an elimination game.
It’s the same format as the Gulf South Conference tournament where the Blazers finished in second place.
They lost their opening round game of the GSC tournament to Southern Arkansas, then avoided elimination three straight days by beating Ouachita Baptist, Harding and West Florida.
In the process, some teams that were competing with the Blazers for one of the last spots in the South Regional tournament fell. Alabama-Huntsville went 0-2, West Florida went 2-2 with a loss to VSU and Delta State went 2-2.
The Blazers made it to the finals of the GSC tournament but were eliminated by Southern Arkansas, 5-0. Apparently the run the Blazers went on was impressive enough to assure themselves a spot in the South Regional.
The Blazers have played four of the other seven teams in the South Regional this season — Barry, Southern Arkansas, West Alabama and Tampa. The Blazers are a combined 3-6 against those teams.
VSU beat Barry once, was beat twice by Southern Arkansas in the GSC tournament, was swept in a three-game series at West Alabama and took two-of-three from Tampa at Billy Grant Field.
The baseball team is the 10th team out of 11 at VSU that has made it to an NCAA regional tournament this school year.
