1996 Mid-American Conference baseball tournament

The 1996 Mid-American Conference baseball tournament took place in May 1996. The top four regular season finishers met in the double-elimination tournament held at Gene Michael Field on the campus of Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. This was the eighth Mid-American Conference postseason tournament to determine a champion. Fourth seeded Akron won their first tournament championship to earn the conference's automatic bid to the 1996 NCAA Division I baseball tournament.^[2][3]

1996 Mid-American Conference
baseball tournament

Teams	4
Format	Double-elimination
Finals site	Gene Michael Field Kent, OH
Champions	Akron (1st title)
Winning coach	Dave Fross (1st title)
MVP	Dave Yoder (Akron)
← 1995 baseball tournament 1997 →

1996 Mid-American Conference baseball standings

v t e	Conf.									Overall
Team	W		L		T		PCT			W		L		T		PCT
Kent State  ‍†‍‍	21	–	7	–	0		.750			30	–	20	–	0		.600
Ohio  ‍‍‍	21	–	11	–	0		.656			34	–	23	–	0		.596
Toledo  ‍‍‍	18	–	14	–	0		.563			27	–	27	–	0		.500
Akron  ‍‍‡‍y	18	–	14	–	0		.563			37	–	23	–	0		.617
Ball State  ‍‍‍	16	–	14	–	0		.533			32	–	20	–	1		.613
Central Michigan  ‍‍‍	16	–	14	–	0		.533			31	–	20	–	0		.608
Eastern Michigan  ‍‍‍	16	–	16	–	0		.500			26	–	29	–	0		.473
Bowling Green  ‍‍‍	14	–	17	–	0		.452			28	–	22	–	0		.560
Western Michigan  ‍‍‍	10	–	21	–	0		.323			17	–	34	–	0		.333
Miami  ‍‍‍	5	–	27	–	0		.156			12	–	40	–	0		.231
† – Conference champion ‡ – Tournament champion y – Invited to the NCAA tournament As of June 30, 1996[1] Rankings from Collegiate Baseball

Seeding and format

The top four finishers based on conference winning percentage only, participated in the tournament. The teams played double-elimination tournament. Toledo claimed the third seed over Akron by tiebreaker.

Team	W	L	PCT	GB	Seed
Kent State	21	7	.750	–	1
Ohio	21	11	.656	2	2
Toledo	18	14	.563	5	3
Akron	18	14	.563	5	4
Ball State	16	14	.533	6	–
Central Michigan	16	14	.533	6	–
Eastern Michigan	16	16	.500	7	–
Bowling Green	14	17	.452	8.5	–
Western Michigan	10	21	.323	12.5	–
Miami	5	27	.156	18	–

Results

	Upper round 1					Upper final					Final
	1	Kent State	1
	4	Akron	4
						4	Akron	6
						2	Ohio	4
	2	Ohio	3
	3	Toledo	2
											4	Akron
											2	Ohio
	Lower round 1					Lower final
						2	Ohio	6
	1	Kent State	2			3	Toledo	4
	3	Toledo	7

All-Tournament Team

The following players were named to the All-Tournament Team.^[4]

Name	School
Todd Maynard	Akron
Brady Gick	Ohio
Jay Bartos	Akron
Ron Warga	Toledo
Steve Smetana	Kent State
Damon Wilcox	Ohio
Dave Yoder	Akron
Mike Goldstein	Ohio
Brian Petrucci	Akron
Mike Doerbecker	Akron

Most Valuable Player

Dave Yoder won the Tournament Most Valuable Player award. Yoder played for Akron.^[4]