MARSHALL, Texas – For the fifth straight season, the East Texas Baptist University baseball team will take part in the upcoming American Southwest Conference tournament this weekend. As the third seed in the tournament, ETBU will travel to Austin, Texas, to Concordia University-Texas to play in the Red Bracket portion of the tournament. The two winners of the Red and Blue Brackets will play in the Gold Bracket next weekend for the overall championship.
 
This past weekend ETBU dropped two-of-three games to Louisiana College in their final regular season series. After winning game one 9-4, the Tigers lost the doubleheader on Saturday, 3-2, and 7-3. Game one had an incredible performance by Casey Combs, who posted a five-hit game with three RBI. Derrick Findley would earn the win with five innings allowing two runs on three hits with three strikeouts.
 
ETBU ended the regular season at 28-12 and is 17-7 in the ASC. Combs has the lead in multiple offensive categories, including batting average (.426), hits (63), and RBI (43) while sharing the home run lead with Seth Mikeska (13 homers). On the mound, Findley is 8-2 with an ERA of 3.82 and 29 strikeouts while Alek Arellano has a team-low ERA of 1.82.
 
Although the tournament for the Tigers will be away from Marshall, head coach Jared Hood feels that every team in the conference is just as capable of winning and advancing onward into the regionals. "We'll go down to Austin and play the field down there," said Coach Hood. "It's a talented field and tournament this year. I think our conference as a whole is just extremely deep. There's no gimme games in this conference. Every week, somebody has a chance to go out and beat somebody. I think that's very important for our conference on a national stage. It's been a fun and exciting year. We're happy that we get a chance to continue to keep playing."
 
Marking their ninth tournament appearance all-time, ETBU is 11-15 in conference tournament play. This is the second straight season ETBU heads out to CTX's baseball field. Last season, ETBU went 0-2 with losses to CTX and the University of Ozarks. CTX will be hosting the Red Bracket for the second season in a row after finishing second at 15-6 and posts an overall record of 29-10. This will be their 15th all-time tournament appearance as the Tornadoes, who are 33-26 all-time in the tournament, last won the tournament in 2012.
 
ETBU and CTX are joined by both sixth seed Hardin-Simmons University and seventh seed Sul Ross State University in the Red Bracket. ETBU will open their tournament with a 3:00 PM game against HSU on Thursday. Earlier this season, ETBU took two-of-three from the Cowboys from March 15-16^th. HSU finished their season 18-20 overall and 12-10 in the ASC. This marks HSU's 17th appearance all-time in the tournament as they are 23-35 all-time. The last time ETBU took on HSU was in 2017 when the Tigers had a walk-off victory in the first round of the Red Bracket tournament.
 
SRSU is making their sixth tournament appearance ever and third in four seasons. The Lobos won the conference tournament in 1999 and are 7-8 all-time. This year, the Lobos finished 17-20 overall and 11-10 in the ASC. This included a three-game sweep by ETBU over SRSU on the weekend of Apr. 12-13.
 
Should ETBU win their first round, they will advance to the second round the next day for a 3:00 PM game with the winner of CTX and SRSU. If ETBU loses their first round game, they will fall to the loser's bracket where they will compete against the loser of the other first round game at 11:00 AM the next day.