No. 3 Buccaneers to take on No. 4 Winthrop at BSC Championship

LEXINGTON, Va. – The No. 3 Charleston Southern Buccaneers will head to Lexington, Va., to face the fourth-seeded Winthrop Eagles in the fifth game of the 2011 Royal Purple Big South Championship presented by Triangle Rent-a-Car on Wednesday evening.  The two teams will face off at 7 p.m. at Gray-Minor Stadium.

CSU earned the regular season series win over Winthrop two games to one.  Though the Eagles struck first with a 3-2 win in extra innings on April 22nd, the Buccaneers bounced back to win both games of April 23rd’s doubleheader.    Walt Quattlebaum and Matt Still led the Bucs to a 7-6 win in the first game before Jesse Cadenhead struck out nine batters to give CSU its second win of the day by a score of 7-3.

The Bucs, who return to postseason play after missing the tournament in 2010, are in the midst of one of the best seasons in recent program history.  CSU claims its highest Big South finish since 2002, when the team also finished third with a 12-9 BSC record under then-head coach Gary Murphy.    It is also the Buccaneers’ first 28-win season since 2000, when Murphy piloted CSU to a 31-31-1 overall record and a second-place Big South finish (14-7). 

Defending champion Coastal Carolina claimed the No. 1 seed, as well as the Big South Regular Season Championship.  The Liberty Flames are seeded second, while Gardner-Webb took the fifth spot.  No. 6 Radford, No. 7 VMI and No. 8 High Point round out the tournament field. 

The winner of game five will advance to game eight, where they will face the winner of game number four.  Game four, which will take place at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, will be between Liberty and highest seed remaining from games one (#6 Radford vs. #7 VMI) and two (#5 Gardner-Webb vs. #8 High Point).   Game eight will be played at 7 p.m. on Thursday.

As a double elimination tournament, the loser of game five will still have a chance to compete for the title.  They will advance to game seven, and will face the winner of game three (#1 Coastal Carolina vs. lowest remaining seed of games one and two.).  Game seven will take place on Thursday at 3 p.m.

Note: Complete game notes will be available tomorrow.

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