Mount Olive College getting ready

By MOC Sports Information
Published in Sports on May 16, 2006 2:17 PM

• Print
• Email

Mount Olive received the No. 6 seed and will face top-seeded and tournament host Georgia College and State Thursday in the first round of the South Atlantic Regional of the 2006 NCAA Division II Baseball Championship. Game time is 3 p.m.

The six-team, double-elimination regional runs through Sunday at John Kurtz Field in Milledgeville, Ga.

Mount Olive (39-14) earned an automatic berth in the regional last month after winning the Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference Tournament. The Trojans join five teams from the Peach Belt Conference in the regional.

The Trojans are ranked No. 29 in this week's Collegiate Baseball Division II Top 30 and all six participants in the South Atlantic Regional are nationally ranked. Georgia College and State is ranked No. 2 this week after spending three consecutive weeks at No. 1.

Other first-round match-ups feature No. 2 seed Francis Marion vs. No. 5 USC-Aiken and No. 3 Columbus State vs. No. 4 Armstrong Atlantic State. Columbus State won the Peach Belt Conference Tournament over the weekend, defeating Georgia College and State in the championship game Sunday.

If Mount Olive wins its first round game, the Trojans play again Friday at 3 p.m. against the loser of Thursday's first round contest between Columbus State and Armstrong Atlantic State. If the Trojans lose in the first round, they'll move to an elimination round game Friday at 11 a.m. against the Francis Marion/USC-Aiken loser.

The winner of the South Atlantic Regional advances to the national finals May 27-June 3 at Montgomery, Ala. The South Atlantic Regional is one of eight regionals taking place this week.

Mount Olive is making its sixth NCAA II championship appearance overall and first since 2000. The Trojans earned a berth in the South Atlantic Regional in five consecutive years from 1996-2000.

This marks the first year the championship field includes 48 teams, expanding from 32 teams last year.

Audio Webcasts of all of Mount Olive's games in the NCAA II Baseball Championship are available on the Mount Olive College athletics Web page at www.moc.edu/athletics.