Catawba and Wingate Earn Hosting Duties as SAC Baseball Tournament Bracket is Released

April 26, 2026

ROCK HILL, S.C. (TheSAC.com) – Catawba is the South Atlantic Conference Baseball Regular Season Champion, finishing the SAC portion of their 2026 schedule with a 29-4 record and an overall record of 38-9. The Catawba Indians will be the No. 1 seed in the South Atlantic Conference Baseball Championship, which will begin with the opening rounds on May 1-3 and conclude with a best-of-three championship series on May 8-9 at McCrary Park in Asheboro, N.C.

Wingate finished the regular season at 24-9 in SAC play to claim the No. 2 seed and will be the second host site.

Lenoir-Rhyne secured the No. 3 seed with a 23-9-1 conference record. Mars Hill broke the program record for most conference wins in a season to claim the No. 4 seed as the Lions went 19-13-1 in league play.

Lincoln Memorial and Carson-Newman each tied with identical 19-14 league marks. However, the Railsplitters captured the tiebreaker and earned the five-seed thanks to a series win over the Eagles. C-N will enter the tournament as the No. 6 seed.

Newberry is the No. 7 seed after finishing 19-14 in the conference while Coker rounds out the tournament field as the eighth seed.

The double elimination 2026 SAC Baseball Championship will open May 1-3, with seeds 1, 4, 5, and 8 playing at Catawba and seeds 2, 3, 6, and 7 competing at Wingate. The two teams that advance out of each site will meet for a best-of-three series at McCrary Park in Asheboro, N.C., on May 8-9 to determine the 2025 SAC Baseball Champion.

Opening Round Schedule

Friday, May 1 (Salisbury, N.C.)

Game 1: 2:00 PM - #8 Coker vs. #1 Catawba
Game 2: 6:00 PM - #5 Lincoln Memorial vs. #4 Mars Hill

Friday, May 1 (Wingate, N.C.)

Game 1: 12:00 PM - #7 Newberry vs. #2 Wingate
Game 2: 3:00 PM - #6 Carson-Newman vs. #3 Lenoir-Rhyne

Saturday, May 3 (Salisbury, N.C.)

Game 3: 11:00 AM - Winner Gm 1 vs. Winner Gm 2
Game 4: 2:00 PM - Loser Gm 1 vs. Loser Gm 2 (Elimination Game)
Game 5: 6:00 PM - Loser Gm 3 vs. Winner Gm 4 (Elimination Game)

Saturday, May 3 (Wingate, N.C.)

Game 3: 11:00 AM - Winner Gm 1 vs. Winner Gm 2
Game 4: 3:00 PM - Loser Gm 1 vs. Loser Gm 2 (Elimination Game)
Game 5: 7:00 PM - Loser Gm 3 vs. Winner Gm 4 (Elimination Game)

Sunday, May 4 (Salisbury, N.C.)

Game 6: 1:00 PM - Winner Gm 5 vs. Winner Gm 3 (Championship Game)
Game 7: 4:00 PM - If Necessary – Rematch for site championship

Sunday, May 4 (Wingate, N.C.)

Game 6: 1:00 PM - Winner Gm 5 vs. Winner Gm 3 (Championship Game)
Game 7: 4:00 PM - If Necessary – Rematch for site championship

Friday, May 8 – Saturday, May 9 (Asheboro, N.C.)

SAC Championship Series (Best-of-Three)