Everything On The Line For Six Teams At CCAC Baseball Tournament

JOLIET, Ill. --- With the fact that the only ticket to the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round for a Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference baseball team this spring will be by winning the league tournament, this week takes on an added importance with the start of the six-team, double-elimination tournament on Thursday afternoon.

University of St. Francis (25-19) gained the top seed, but that is at far as an edge goes with no byes set up in the bracket.  The Fighting Saints won the regular-season for the second year in a row, but rubber-stamping them as the favorite is not as secure as one would think, not with them having lost nine games during the league season.

The parity showed further with the Nos. 2-5 seeds having identical 19-13 conference records, forcing a four-way tie-breaker before things were settled.  Roosevelt University (28-20) came out on top of that heap, followed by No. 3 seed Olivet Nazarene University (22-27).  Each of those two teams split their four-game season series with St. Francis.

Coming in at No. 4 is Saint Xavier University (27-23) with St. Ambrose University (25-20) at No. 5 and Trinity Christian College (25-25) at No. 6.

St. Francis and Trinity Christian open the tournament at 1 pm on Thursday with Roosevelt/St. Ambrose to follow at 4 pm and Olivet Nazarene/Saint Xavier to cap off the first day.  All six teams will also play on Friday before teams start to get eliminated.

The first championship game is set for 7 pm Monday with the if-necessary game on Tuesday, also at 7 pm.

Duly Health and Care Field in downtown Joliet will again serve as the tournament site with St. Francis and the Joliet Slammers serving as the hosts.

For the complete tournament bracket, go to Bracket.

The complete schedule follows:

Thursday, May 2, 2024
Game #1: No. 6 Trinity Christian (25-25) vs. No. 1 St. Francis (25-19) --- 1 pm
Game #2: No. 5 St. Ambrose (25-20) vs. No. 2 Roosevelt (28-20) --- 4 pm
Game #3: No. 4 Saint Xavier (27-23) vs. No. 3 Olivet Nazarene (22-27) --- 7 pm

Friday, May 3, 2024
Game #4: Loser-Game #1 vs. Loser-Game #2 --- 1 pm
Game #5: Loser-Game #3 vs. Winner-Game #1 --- 4 pm
Game #6: Winner-Game #2 vs. Winner-Game #3 --- 7 pm

Saturday, May 4, 2024 (Schedule could change depending upon Game 1-6 results)
Game #7: Winner-Game #5 vs. Winner-Game #6 --- 1 pm
Game #8: Winner-Game #4 vs. Loser-Game #6 --- 4 pm
Game #9: Winner-Game #8 vs. Loser-Game #7 --- 7 pm

Monday, May 6, 2024
Game #10: Winner-Game #7 vs. Winner-Game #9 --- 7 pm (Championship)

Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Game #11: Winner-Game #10 vs. Loser-Game #10 --- 7 pm (If necessary)