May 21, 2012

Tournament Central

OREM, Utah -- After wrapping up a perfect Great West Conference regular season over the weekend, three-time conference champion Utah Valley begins its attempt at a third straight tournament title on Tuesday at 7 p.m. against NYIT at Brent Brown Ballpark.

The Wolverines (43-12) switched places in the polls this week; moving up to No. 27 in the Monday's National College Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) poll but dropping three spots to No. 30 in the Collegiate Baseball poll. UVU is also receiving votes in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Top 25 poll.

The Wolverines won four times over Northern Colorado last weekend to set a new school record with their 43rd win of the year while completing their seventh straight four-game sweep in league play to finish 28-0 in the GWC regular season.

Against NYIT just two weeks ago in New York, the Wolverines won four times but had to come from behind in the series' second game to pick up the win. The game against the No. 8 seed Bears is the fourth game on the tournament's opening day. No. 3 NJIT will face No. 6 North Dakota in the opener at 9 a.m. and No. 2 Texas-Pan American plays No. 7 Chicago State in the second game of the day. No. 4 Northern Colorado and No. 5 Houston Baptist face off at 3:30 p.m.

Utah Valley University is the host of the 2012 Great West Baseball Tournament with all games played at Brent Brown Ballpark on the UVU campus. The format is a double elimination with the championship set for Saturday.