Posted: Apr 28, 2014
�Brackets2014 Heart of America Athletic Conference Baseball Championship Series First Round
#6-seed Central Methodist (20-24) vs. #3-seed Peru State (30-17)
Thursday, May 1 - 4 p.m. CT
Joplin, Mo. - Wendell Redden Stadium
Live Stats: CMUEagles.com
Twitter:�@cmueagles
JOPLIN, Mo. - Central Methodist, the defending champion in the Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC) Baseball Championship Series and six-seed this season, battles three-seed Peru State (Neb.) on Thursday to open play in the double-elimination tournament. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. CT at Wendell Redden Stadium.
The brackets for the 2014 tournament were unveiled Sunday evening.
The winner of Central Methodist/Peru State plays the winner of No. 2 Evangel (Mo.)/No. 7 Missouri Valley in the second round on Friday at 7 p.m. The loser of the Eagles/Bobcats contest plays Friday at 1 p.m. against the loser of the Crusaders/Vikings affair in an elimination game.
Central Methodist and Peru State split a doubleheader on March 26 at Estes Field. The Eagles won the first game 9-5 but lost the second 10-7.
The Eagles and Bobcats have won the last two tournament titles.
Central Methodist has won two straight games in the Championship Series and is 5-2 in the tournament dating back to 2012.
The Eagles are 1-1 this season in games played at Wendell Redden Stadium, having defeated Waldorf (Iowa) 7-3 but lost to Grand View (Iowa) 7-4 on March 22 in the Joplin Invitational.
Live stats for all tournament games will be available on CMUEagles.com.
The HAAC Championship Series is scheduled for May 1-6. The winner of the event secures the league's second automatic berth into the 2014 NAIA World Series Opening Round. MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) claimed the first spot by virtue of winning the regular season conference title.
Tickets for the tournament as well as programs can be purchased at the entrance to Wendell Redden Stadium. The first potential championship game is slated for Monday, May 5 at 4:00 p.m. If both teams finish that game with one loss, they will play a final elimination game on Tuesday, May 6 at 1:00 p.m.
The conference tournament has been a six-team event in recent years, but the league's coaches chose to expand the event to eight teams. They also chose a new site after staging the event at Phil Welch Stadium in St. Joseph, Mo.
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