MARSHALL, Texas - For the second time in program history, the East Texas Baptist University baseball team will play in the American Southwest Conference Gold Bracket Championship Series competing for their first-ever tournament title. They travel to Richardson, Texas, to face #1 seed  the University of Texas Dallas in a three-game series starting on Thursday. ETBU is 29-14 overall and seeking their fourth 30-win season in the last six years.

The Tigers earned the right to host the Red Bracket portion of the tournament last week as the #2 overall seed. They opened up the tournament with a 2-1 walk-off 11-inning victory over Belhaven University. In the next two games following, ETBU's bats woke up scoring 21 runs in those games. They defeated the University of Ozarks, 10-3, in the semi-final game and Louisiana College, 11-5, to claim the Red Bracket tournament championship. Five members of the team were named to the all-bracket squad including Isaiah Alvarenga, tournament MVP Cole Godkin, Will Kelley, Cameron Neel and Christopher Robinson.

With the win in the Red Bracket side, this marks the second time ETBU is in the Gold Bracket Championship. ETBU was last in the Gold Bracket Championship in 2017 against the University of Texas-Tyler. Despite taking the Patriots to two extra-inning contests, the Tigers were unable to pick up a win as their season ended with a 30-15 record.

ETBU will meet up with Texas Dallas starting on Thursday. UTD finished a half-game better in the conference for first with a 27-10 record overall. The Comets took a three-game series from ETBU earlier this season winning the first two games by scores of 14-6 and 4-3 before ETBU avoided the sweep with a 6-3 win in game three. Like ETBU, UTD would go through their Blue Bracket championship undefeated defeating LeTourneau University (11-4), Mary Hardin-Baylor (5-4), and Concordia Texas (9-6). This marks UTD's seventh trip to the Gold Bracket Series as they will seek their first conference title since 2018.

The Gold Bracket Series will be a best-of-three series with nine inning games  on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 2:00 PM.