2023 Southern Conference baseball season

The 2023 Southern Conference baseball season was the baseball season for the Southern Conference as part of the 2023 NCAA Division I baseball season. Wofford was predicted to win the conference in the preseason poll.^[1] The conference tournament was scheduled for May 24–28 at Fluor Field at the West End in Greenville, South Carolina.^[2]

2023 Southern Conference baseball season
League	Southern Conference
Sport	Baseball
Number of teams	8
Regular Season
Season champions	Samford
Season MVP	Ryan Galanie (Wofford)
Tournament
Champions	Samford
Runners-up	Wofford
Finals MVP	Heath Clevenger (Samford)

Regular Season

The Southern Conference began conference play on March 24. Each team was scheduled to play 21 conference games.^[3]

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	CW	CL	CPCT	GB	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	Samford (C, T)	54	15	6	.714	—	32	22	.593	Qualification for the third round & NCAA tournament
2	Mercer	55	13	8	.619	2	32	23	.582	Qualification for the third round
3	Wofford	54	12	9	.571	3	37	17	.685	Qualification for the second round
4	East Tennessee State	52	10	11	.476	5	25	27	.481
5	VMI	54	9	11	.450	5.5	26	28	.481	Qualification for the play-in round
6	UNC Greensboro	54	9	12	.429	6	22	32	.407
7	Western Carolina	53	8	12	.400	6.5	21	32	.396
8	The Citadel	51	7	14	.333	8	22	29	.431

Source: SoCon^[4]
(C) Champion; (T) Tournament champion

Conference Game Results

Home \ Away	CIT	ETSU	MER	SAM	UNCG	VMI	WCU	WOF
The Citadel		1–2	1–2			2–1		0–3
East Tennessee State				1–2	2–1		2–1	1–2
Mercer		3–0		0–3	2–1		1–2
Samford	3–0				2–1		2–1
UNC Greensboro	1–2						2–1	2–1
VMI		1–2	1–2	1–2	2–1
Western Carolina	2–1					0–2[a]		1–2
Wofford			0–3	2–1		2–1

Updated to match(es) played on May 20, 2023. Source: SoCon^[5]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Red = away team win.
Notes:

1. The final game of the WCU-VMI series was cancelled due to inclement weather.

Tournament

2023 Southern Conference
baseball tournament

Teams	8
Format	Single-elimination play-in, then six-team double-elimination tournament with championship game
Finals site	Fluor Field at the West End Greenville, SC
Champions	Samford (4th title)
Winning coach	Tony David (1st title)
MVP	Heath Clevenger (Samford)
Television	ESPN+
← 2022 SoCon baseball tournament 2024 →

The 2023 Southern Conference baseball tournament was held on May 24 through May 27 at Fluor Field at the West End in Greenville, South Carolina. The winner of the conference tournament received an automatic bid to the 2023 NCAA Division I baseball tournament.

All eight SoCon baseball teams participated in the tournament, with the bottom four seeds having played a single-elimination play-in round. The remaining teams then played a six-team double-elimination tournament, with the top two seeds receiving byes into the third round, and the third and fourth placed teams playing the play-in round winners in the second round.^[6] The UNC Greensboro Spartans were the defending champions, but were eliminated by the Samford Bulldogs in the loser's bracket final. Wofford came out as the only team to not go through the loser's bracket, but lost two games to Samford, giving the Bulldogs their fourth SoCon baseball tournament title. Samford's Heath Clevenger was named the Tournament Most Outstanding Player.^[7]

Bracket

	Play-in round					Second round					Third round					Semifinals					Final
											Game 5
						Game 3					1	Samford	2
	Game 1					4	East Tennessee State	127			4	East Tennessee State	1
																Game 9
	5	VMI	2			8	The Citadel	0
																1	Samford	6
	8	The Citadel	5
																3	Wofford	7
											Game 6
						Game 4					2	Mercer	14
	Game 2					3	Wofford	6			3	Wofford	16
	6	UNC Greensboro	4			6	UNC Greensboro	1													Games 12 and 13
	7	Western Carolina	3																		3	Wofford	2	2
																					1	Samford	7	5
						Lower third round					Lower semifinal					Lower final
						Game 7
						6	UNC Greensboro	4								Game 11
						4	East Tennessee State	2			Game 10					1	Samford	9
											6	UNC Greensboro	9			6	UNC Greensboro	5
						Game 8					2	Mercer	5
						8	The Citadel	1
						2	Mercer	8

Schedule

Game	Time*	Matchup#	Score
Day 1 (Wednesday, May 24)[8]
1	3:00 p.m.	#5 VMI vs. #8 The Citadel	2-5[9]
2	7:00 p.m.	#6 UNC Greensboro vs. #7 Western Carolina	4-3[9]
Day 2 (Thursday, May 25)[8]
3	9:00 a.m.	#8 The Citadel vs. #4 East Tennessee State	0-127[10]
4	12:30 p.m.	#6 UNC Greensboro vs. #3 Wofford	1-6[10]
5	4:00 p.m.	#4 East Tennessee State vs. #1 Samford	1-2[11]
6	7:30 p.m.	#3 Wofford vs. #2 Mercer	16-14[11]
Day 3 (Friday, May 26)[8]
7	9:00 a.m.	#6 UNC Greensboro vs. #4 East Tennessee State	4-2[12]
8	12:30 p.m.	#8 The Citadel vs. #2 Mercer	1-8[12]
9	4:00 p.m.	#1 Samford vs. #3 Wofford	6-7[13]
10	7:30 p.m.	#6 UNC Greensboro vs. #2 Mercer	9-5[13]
Day 4 (Saturday, May 27)[14]
11	8:00 a.m.	#1 Samford vs. #6 UNC Greensboro	9-5[15]
12	10:30 a.m.	#3 Wofford vs. #1 Samford	2-7[15]
13	1:00 p.m.	#3 Wofford vs. #1 Samford	2-5[7]
*Game times are in EDT. # – Rankings denote tournament seed.

Conference leaders

Hitting leaders[16] Stat Player Total AVG Justin Starke (VMI) .392 HR John Anderson (SAM) 22 RBI Ryan Galanie (WOF) 66 R Treyson Hughes (MER) 74 H Ryan Galanie (WOF) 88 SB Ty Swaim (VMI) 35

Pitching leaders[16] Stat Player Total W Matthew Marchal (WOF) 11 L Jay Miller (UNCG) 8 ERA Lucas Mahlstedt (WOF) 2.69 K Jacob Cravey (SAM) 121 IP Jacob Cravey (SAM) 98.2 SV Ben Petschke (SAM) 14

Conference leaders statistics include all regular season and SoCon tournament games.

See also

• 2023 in baseball