2026 Southern Conference baseball season

2026 Southern Conference baseball season
LeagueSouthern Conference
SportBaseball
DurationFebruary 13, 2026 - June 22, 2026
Games21 (conference)
Teams8
TV partnerESPN+
Regular Season
Season championsMercer Bears
Season MVPPlayer: Chris Katz (MER)
Pitcher: Alec Bouchard (WOF)
Conference Tournament
ChampionsThe Citadel
  Runners-upSamford
Finals MVPMichael Gibson (CIT)
2026 Southern Conference baseball standings
Conf.Overall
TeamW L PCTW L PCT
Mercer ‍†‍‍ 15–6 .71444–15 .746
Western Carolina ‍‍‍ 14–7 .66736–23 .610
Samford ‍‍‍ 12–9 .57131–25 .554
Wofford ‍‍‍ 12–9 .57134–22 .607
The Citadel ‍‍‡‍y 11–10 .52436–26 .581
East Tennessee State ‍‍‍ 10–11 .47630–23 .566
UNC Greensboro ‍‍‍ 7–14 .33323–33 .411
VMI ‍‍‍ 3–18 .14328–27 .509
† – Conference champion
‡ – Tournament champion
y – Invited to the NCAA tournament
As of May 31, 2026[1]
Rankings from D1Baseball

The 2026 Southern Conference baseball season is the baseball season for the Southern Conference as part of the 2026 NCAA Division I baseball season. Samford was predicted to win the conference in the preseason poll.[2] The conference tournament was played from May 20 to May 23 at Fluor Field at the West End in Greenville, South Carolina.[3]

The Mercer Bears won the regular season SoCon championship and obtained the #1 seed in the conference tournament. The Citadel Bulldogs won the conference tournament, thereby receiving an automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA Division I baseball tournament. Consequently, the Bears became the highest-ranked team in terms of the NCAA's rating percentage index (RPI) metric (finishing 28th) to be left out of the NCAA tournament since the super-regional format was adopted in 1999.

Regular season

The Southern Conference began conference play on March 20. Conference play ended on May 16. Each team played 21 conference games, with three games against each conference opponent home or away.

In regular season play, Mercer won the outright SoCon regular season title by one game. The eight SoCon baseball coaches voted Chris Katz of Mercer as 2026 SoCon Baseball Player of the Year and Alec Bouchard of Wofford as 2026 SoCon Baseball Pitcher of the Year.[4] Garrett Lambert of Mercer was selected as 2026 SoCon Baseball Freshman of the Year, and Craig Gibson of Mercer was voted 2026 SoCon Baseball Coach of the Year.[4] Aryan Patel of The Citadel was voted as the 2026 SoCon Baseball Golden Glove recipient, which was given to the 2026 SoCon Baseball Defensive Player of the Year.[4]

Conference Game Results and Standings

Conference game results and standings are presented below, and include all regular season games.

Pos Team Pld CW CL CPCT GB W L PCT Qualification
1 Mercer (C) 56 15 6 .714 — 43 13 .768 Qualification for the third round of conference tournament
2 Western Carolina 56 14 7 .667 1 35 21 .625
3 Samford 52 12 9 .571[a] 3 28 24 .538 Qualification for the second round of conference tournament
4 Wofford 54 12 9 .571[a] 3 34 20 .630
5 The Citadel 54 11 10 .524 4 30 24 .556 Qualification for the first round of conference tournament
6 East Tennessee State 52 10 11 .476 5 30 22 .577
7 UNC Greensboro 53 7 14 .333 8 22 31 .415
8 VMI 54 3 18 .143 12 28 26 .519
Source: Southern Conference[1]
(C) Regular season champion(s)
Notes:
  1. 1 2 Samford won season series 2-1 over Wofford
Home \ Away CIT ETSU MER SAM UNCG VMI WCU WOF
The Citadel 2–1 2–1 2–1
East Tennessee State 2–1 0–3 2–1
Mercer 2–1 3–0 3–0
Samford 1–2 1–2 3–0 2–1
UNC Greensboro 1–2 1–2 0–3 3–0
VMI 0–3 1–2 1–2
Western Carolina 2–1 3–0 2–1 2–1
Wofford 3–0 2–1 3–0 1–2
Source: Southern Conference[5]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Red = away team win.

Regular Season Honors

Southern Conference Baseball awards for regular-season performance were unveiled on May 19, 2026. These awards included awards for player, pitcher, freshman, coach, and defensive players of the year, as well as all-conference first, second, defensive, and freshman teams.

Individual Honors

Source:[4]

  • Player of the Year: Chris Katz (MER)
  • Pitcher of the Year: Alec Bouchard (WOF)
  • Freshman of the Year: Garrett Lambert (MER)
  • Coach of the Year: Craig Gibson (MER)
  • Golden Glove Recipient: Aryan Patel (CIT)

All-Southern Conference Teams

Source:[4]

Tournament

2026 Southern Conference
baseball tournament
Teams8
FormatSingle elimination play-in round, then two-bracket double-elimination tournament, followed by winner-take-all championship game
Finals site
ChampionsThe Citadel (9th title)
Winning coachRussell Triplett (1st title)
MVPMichael Gibson (CIT)
TelevisionESPN+

The 2026 Southern Conference baseball tournament was held from May 20 through May 23 at Fluor Field at the West End in Greenville, South Carolina. The winner of the conference tournament received an automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA Division I baseball tournament.

Beginning with the 2026 edition of the tournament, two separate brackets were maintained until the championship game, consisting of four teams each. All eight SoCon baseball teams participated in the tournament and were placed in a bracket and seeded based on regular season conference record. The bottom four seeds played in the single-elimination first round to begin the tournament. The two first round winners then joined the top four seeds in two separate double-elimination brackets, with the top two seeds receiving byes into the third round, and the third and fourth placed teams playing the first round winners in the second round. Once one team advanced from each bracket, they played each other in a winner-take-all championship game.[3] The East Tennessee State Buccaneers were defending champions, having won the 2025 edition of the tournament.

In the first round, the fifth-seeded The Citadel Bulldogs and seventh-seeded UNC Greensboro Spartans defeated the eighth-seeded VMI Keydets and sixth-seeded East Tennessee State Buccaneers, respectively, to advance to the second round. The Keydets and Buccaneers were thereby eliminated from the conference tournament.

In the top half of the bracket, The Citadel upset the fourth-seeded Wofford Terriers in the second round, advancing to the third round of the tournament. The Citadel then defeated the top-seeded Mercer Bears to advance to the tournament semifinals. This resulted in the Terriers and Bears playing in an elimination game, with the Bears winning that game by one run. This set up a rematch between Mercer and The Citadel in the semifinals, with the Bulldogs once again victorious in run-rule fashion, giving The Citadel a berth in the championship game.

On the other side of the bracket, the Spartans were defeated by the third-seeded Samford Bulldogs. Samford then upset the second-seeded Western Carolina Catamounts, setting up an elimination game between the Catamounts and Spartans. This game was won by Western Carolina, setting up a rematch between Samford and Western Carolina in the tournament semifinals. Samford defeated the Catamounts in extra innings, setting up a championship match between both of the SoCon's Bulldogs.

New to this year's tournament, the championship game was winner-take-all for the automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA tournament. The Citadel won the championship match, outscoring Samford by two runs, to give The Citadel Bulldogs their first NCAA tournament berth since their 2010 season.

Michael Gibson of The Citadel received the Walt Nadzak Award (named after Walt Nadzak) for being voted as the tournament's most outstanding player.[6]

Seeding

Teams were seeded based on conference record, with one two-way tie being broken by head-to-head record among the two teams. No ties involved three or more teams during the 2026 regular season.

Pos Team Pld CW CL CPCT GB W L PCT Qualification
1 Mercer (C) 56 15 6 .714 — 43 13 .768 Not invited to NCAA tournament
2 Western Carolina 56 14 7 .667 1 35 21 .625
3 Samford 52 12 9 .571[a] 3 28 24 .538
4 Wofford 54 12 9 .571[a] 3 34 20 .630
5 The Citadel (T) 54 11 10 .524 4 30 24 .556 Awarded automatic bid to NCAA tournament
6 East Tennessee State 52 10 11 .476 5 30 22 .577 Not invited to NCAA tournament
7 UNC Greensboro 53 7 14 .333 8 22 31 .415
8 VMI 54 3 18 .143 12 28 26 .519
Updated to match(es) played on May 23, 2026. Source: Southern Conference[1]
(C) Regular season champion(s); (T) Conference tournament champion
Notes:
  1. 1 2 Samford won season series 2-1 over Wofford

Bracket

First Round
Wednesday, May 20		Second Round
Wednesday, May 20		Third Round
Thursday, May 21		Semifinal Round
Friday, May 22		Championship
Saturday, May 23
Game 1
5The Citadel21(8)Game 3
8VMI115The Citadel13Game 5
4Wofford75The Citadel9
1Mercer2Games 9 & 11
5The Citadel14(7)–
Game 71Mercer4–
1Mercer9
Game 24Wofford8Game 13
6East Tennessee State5Game 45The Citadel3
7UNC Greensboro67UNC Greensboro1Game 63Samford1
3Samford13(7)3Samford9
2Western Carolina5Games 10 & 12
3Samford5(13)–
Game 82Western Carolina1–
2Western Carolina4
7UNC Greensboro3

Game times are in EDT.
All games televised on ESPN+.
Rankings denote tournament seed.
Superscripted number next to scores denote games that use extra innings or the run rule.
Source: Southern Conference[3]

Schedule

Game Time Matchup Score Reference
Day 1 (Wednesday, May 20)
1 9:00 a.m. No. 5 The Citadel vs. No. 8 VMI 21–11(8) [7]
2 1:30 p.m. No. 6 East Tennessee State vs. No. 7 UNC Greensboro 5–6 [7]
3 5:15 p.m. No. 5 The Citadel vs. No. 4 Wofford 13–7 [7]
4 9:25 p.m. No. 7 UNC Greensboro vs. No. 3 Samford 1–13(7) [7]
Day 2 (Thursday, May 21)
5 9:00 a.m. No. 5 The Citadel vs. No. 1 Mercer 9–2 [8]
6 12:55 p.m. No. 3 Samford vs. No. 2 Western Carolina 9–5 [8]
7 4:50 p.m. No. 1 Mercer vs. No. 4 Wofford 9–8 [8]
8 8:40 p.m. No. 2 Western Carolina vs. No. 7 UNC Greensboro 4–3 [8]
Day 3 (Friday, May 22)
9 9:00 a.m. No. 5 The Citadel vs. No. 1 Mercer 14–4(7) [9]
10 12:30 p.m. No. 3 Samford vs. No. 2 Western Carolina 5–1(13) [9]
11 Game skipped due to result of Game 9 [9]
12 Game skipped due to result of Game 10 [9]
Day 4 (Saturday, May 23)
13 7:00 p.m. No. 5 The Citadel vs. No. 3 Samford 3–1
Game times are in EDT.
All games televised on ESPN+.
Rankings denote tournament seed.
Superscripted number next to scores denote games that use extra innings or the run rule.
Source: Southern Conference[3]

Tournament Honors

The Southern Conference announced tournament honors on May 23, 2026. These awards included the Walt Nadzak Award, named after Walt Nadzak, for the tournament's most outstanding player, and the 2026 All-Tournament Team. The Walt Nadzak Award was won by Michael Gibson of The Citadel.

All-Tournament Team

Position[6] Player
SPWill Holmes (CIT)
SPGarrett Lambert (MER)
SPMason Blasche (SAM)
RPCannon Lee (UNCG)
CPhillips Daniels (CIT)
1BZach Hunt (CIT)
2BJeffrey Ince (SAM)
SSLane Tobin (CIT)
Gus Gandy (SAM)
3BBrant Baughcum (MER)
OFChris Katz (MER)
OFLuke Boykin (SAM)
OFChristian Stratis (CIT)
DHMichael Gibson (CIT)


Conference leaders

Updated to games played as of May 23, 2026. Includes all regular season conference and non-conference games, as well as conference tournament games.
Source: Southern Conference[10]
Note: AVG, OPS, ERA, and WHIP leaders must qualify for their respective leaderboards per the SoCon Baseball 2026 Statistics webpage.[10]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "SoCon Baseball 2026 Standings". SoConSports.com. Retrieved June 1, 2026.
  2. ↑ "Samford Picked to Win 2026 SoCon Baseball Title". soconsports.com. February 5, 2026. Retrieved February 13, 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "2026 Baseball Championship presented by Holston Gases". soconsports.com. Retrieved February 13, 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "2026 All-SoCon Baseball Teams Announced". Retrieved May 19, 2026.
  5. ↑ "SoCon Baseball 2026 Schedule". soconsports.com. Retrieved May 15, 2026.
  6. 1 2 "The Citadel Tops Samford for Ninth SoCon Baseball Title". soconsports.com. Retrieved May 23, 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "First Day of SoCon Baseball Championship in the Books". soconsports.com. Retrieved May 20, 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "The Citadel, Samford Remain Undefeated After Day Two". soconsports.com. Retrieved May 22, 2026.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "The Citadel, Samford Advance To Saturday's SoCon Baseball Title Game". soconsports.com. Retrieved May 23, 2026.
  10. 1 2 "SoCon Baseball 2026 Statistics". soconsports.com. Retrieved May 23, 2026.
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