Bulldog baseball team gears up for highly competitive Hattiesburg Regional

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Union and Houston-Victoria took similar routes to the NAIA Baseball National Championship opening round.

Like the Bulldogs, who placed fifth in the Appalachian Athletic Conference regular season standings, the Jaguars may have seemed unlikely to extend their season this far, entering the eight-team Red River Athletic Conference Tournament as the six seed.

But like Union's perfect, 4-0 run through the AAC, UHV, which was a sub.-500 22-25 in the regular season, won all four of its games in the RRAC, sealing the deal with a 12-2 blowout of LSU Alexandria in the championship game on May 9. This put the teams on a collision course for Hattiesburg, Miss. where the fourth-seeded Bulldogs will face the fifth-seeded Jags in the opening game of regional competition at 11 a.m. EST on Monday.

Another common trait is that both teams enter the double-elimination regional after ending long conference championship droughts. Union, which is playing in just its second national tournament since 2012, won the AAC for the first time since 2006, while Houston-Victoria hadn't won a conference title since 2010 when it played in the Association of Independent Institutions. Monday will be the Jaguars' first national game since 2014.

The winner will play a second game Monday against a far more seasoned opponent in tournament top seed William Carey. Playing on their home field, the Crusaders are in the national tournament for a third consecutive year, coming in with a 44-9 record and the No. 8 ranking in the country. 

Monday's game between William Carey and the Union-Houston-Victoria winner is scheduled for 6 p.m. EST. The loser will face the loser of Monday's second game between No. 2 Texas Wesleyan (36-13) and No. 3 Ave Maria (Fla.) (34-16) in an elimination game at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

Texas Wesleyan and Ave Maria are both ranked in the top-20 nationally, entering at No. 14 and 17 respectively. Like Union, Wesleyan is in the national field for the first time since 2019, while AMU is making its first appearance since 2013, the longest drought of any program that had previously made the field.

Fans hoping to buy tickets can do so by clicking here. Streams are available for $9.99 per game, or for a $24.99 tournament pass. The game can be streamed by clicking here. Live stats can be found by clicking here. 

Here is a comparison of Union and Houston-Victoria's seasons: