SUGAR LAND, Texas – No. 1-seeded Southeastern Louisiana looks to defend last season's tournament title when it opens play at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Constellation Field in the 2015 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Matt Riser, the conference's Clay Gould Coach of the Year, led Southeastern (41-15, 25-5 Southland) to the Southland's regular-season championship, a school record for overall wins and a Southland record for conference wins. Last season, the Lions swept through the tournament and advanced to NCAA Regional play for the first time in 20 years.

All of the Lions tournament games can be heard in the Hammond area on KSLU 90.9 FM, online and through either the KSLU or TuneIn Radio smartphone apps. Fans can also keep up with the action through live statistics or by following @SLUathletics on Twitter. Additionally, all of the tournament games will be broadcast by ESPN3.

Links for audio, video, stats and tickets are available on the baseball schedule page at www.LionSports.net.

Jacob Seward (.365), Kevin Carr (.330), Kennon Menard (.329), Carson Crites (.324), Daniel Midyett (.315) and Brett Hoffman (.310) lead Southeastern at the plate. Seward, the Southland Conference Player of the Year, also paces the team in hits (74), on-base percentage (.457) and stolen bases (19). Midyett, a first team All-Conference selection, leads the squad with eight home runs and 45 RBIs.

Hoffman, a second team All-Conference selection and a Louisville Slugger Preseason All-American, is second all-time in games played at Southeastern (228), seventh in hits (201) and ninth in doubles (36). He needs five more games to bypass Cass Hargis and become the school's all-time leader in games played.

The Lions are hitting a conference-best .303 as a team and have been successful on 90-of-119 stolen base attempts, also tops in the conference. The pitching staff has compiled a 3.26 ERA, second-lowest in the Southland, fanning a conference-leading 457 batters in 493.2 innings pitched.

Tate Scioneaux (9-2, 2.70), a junior right-hander from Reserve, Louisiana, draws the starting nod in Southeastern's tournament opener. The junior from Reserve, Louisiana, owns 23 career victories, placing him fifth on Southeastern's all-time wins list and needs just two wins to tie for first. A first team All-Conference selection, he is fifth in career strikeouts (254) and is the school's all-time leader in innings pitched (310.1).

Southeastern's first-round opponent is slated to counter with senior left-hander Trevor Belicek (8-4, 2.97), a first team All-Conference honoree.

Jordan Lee (.326), Zacarias Hardy (.314), Tyler Ware (.311) and Casey Thomas (.306) lead A&M-Corpus Christi at the plate. Lee also owns a team-best 10 doubles and four home runs. Kyle Danford leads the squad with 35 RBIs. Ware's 16 stolen bases are a team high.

The Islanders are hitting .263 as a team and have been successful on 64-of-89 stolen base attempts. Their pitching staff has compiled a 3.66 ERA, fanning 375 batters in 413.1 innings of work.

Southeastern swept a three-game series at A&M-Corpus Christi (23-25, 13-14 Southland), March 20-22.

The winner of the Southeastern-A&M-Corpus Christi game will face off against the winner of No. 4-seeded McNeese State and No. 5-seeded Sam Houston State. The losers of Wednesday's last two games will meet each other Thursday at noon.

No. 3-seeded Nicholls will open the tournament taking on No. 6-seeded Central Arkansas Wednesday at 9 a.m. Wednesday's second game of the day will feature No. 2-seeded Northwestern State taking on No. 7-seeded Houston Baptist at noon. The winners of Wednesday's first two games advance to play Thursday at 4 p.m. while the losers play Thursday at 9 a.m.

Tournament Format
The tournament is set up in similar fashion to the NCAA College World Series in that there are two brackets with the winners meeting for the championship. Unlike in Omaha, the bracket winners of the Southland tournament meet in a single game to decide the championship. The winner of the Southland tournament is the league's automatic qualifier for the NCAA tournament, which begins with regional play, May 29-June 1.

Tournament History
This marks the 29th year of the Southland Conference baseball tournament. It began in 1964 though no tournament was played between 1969 and 1992. Since it resumed in 1993, Sam Houston State and Texas State lead all conference teams with four tournament championships. The Bearkats won their first tournament title in 1996 and won three in a row from 2007 through 2009. The regular-season champion has won the tournament eight times though just three times since the tournament resumed in 1993. The last team to do that was Texas State, which won both the regular-season and tournament titles in 2011.

Ticket Information
An all-tournament pass, which allows entry into all 15 possible games of the tournament, is $55. A single-day pass, which will include four games on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with a possibility of three games on Saturday, is $17 each day. Skeeters season-ticket holders will be eligible for an $11 ticket offer.

Additionally, children 5 and under will be admitted free of charge, while students at Southland Conference Institutions will also gain free admission with a valid student ID. Tickets are available for purchase at the Constellation Field box office, by phone at 281-240-4487 and online at www.sugarlandskeeters.com. Online orders are subject to a $2 service charge per ticket.

Tournament Coverage
The schedule of the double-elimination event has four games on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Two "if-necessary" games are scheduled for Saturday before the championship game, which will be played at 6 p.m. Every game of the 2015 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament will be carried live by ESPN3.

Chris Mycoskie will handle play-by-play duties throughout the tournament, joined by several announcers from around the conference. For the title game, Mycoskie will be matched with color analyst Greg Swindell, a first-team All-American at Texas and 17-year Major League veteran.

ESPN3 is ESPN's live multi-screen sports network, a destination that delivers thousands of exclusive sports events annually. It is accessible online at WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app and streamed on televisions through Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Winner Advances to NCAA Tournament
The winner of the Southland Conference tournament earns the league's automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. The field of 64 will be announced Monday at 11 a.m., CDT, on ESPNU. The tournament begins with regional play May 29-June 1 at campus sites. Super Regionals will be held June 5-8 and the College World Series will be June 13-24.


No. 1-seeded Southeastern Louisiana Lions (41-15, 25-5 Southland) at Southland Conference Tournament

DATES / TIMES
Wednesday, May 20 – 4 p.m. (CT)
Thursday, May 21 – 12 p.m. or 7 p.m. (CT)
Friday, May 22 – 12 p.m. or 7 p.m. (CT), if necessary
Saturday, May 23 – 1 p.m. or 6 p.m. (CT), if necessary

STADIUM
Constellation Field (Sugar Land, Texas)

RADIO
• KSLU, 90.9 FM
• Pregame show starts 15 minutes prior to first pitch

INTERNET / SMARTPHONE
• www.LionSports.net – live audio and stats
• KSLU iPhone app, TuneIn Radio app
• ESPN3, WatchESPN.com, WatchESPN app