Tournament Central

NEW ORLEANS, La. – The 2017 Southwestern Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament is set to begin on Wednesday, with all eight teams that qualified taking the field at Wesley Barrows Stadium in New Orleans, La.
 
The tournament format is double elimination, with eastern division seeds matching up against western division seeds.  The championship game will be broadcast live on ESPNU on Sunday May 21 at 11 a.m. CT.
 
Western division champion, Grambling State (22-28, 15-9 SWAC) will open up tournament play against Alcorn State (11-31, 7-17 SWAC), the fourth seed in the Eastern division. This first-round matchup is the only one that features teams that squared off in the regular season. The Tigers and Braves met in each team's season opener with GSU winning 5-1 in five innings. 
 
The Tigers will be looking to Marshawn Taylor – who collected many postseason honors, including Player of the Year – to lead the team during the tournament.  Taylor led the SWAC in batting average (.397) and hits (77) this season.  The Braves will be depending on first team All-SWAC second baseman Wallace Rios Jimenez.  Jimenez was second on the Braves with a .319 batting average and tied for second in hits with 43. 
 
Live stats and an audio stream of each game can be found here.