MOBILE, Ala. (May 16, 2022) – The Spring Hill College (SHC) Badgers baseball team will open play at the 2022 NCAA Division II South 1 Region Tournament as the No. 8 seed versus the No. 1 seed and hosting University of Tampa (UT) Spartans at UT Baseball Field on Thursday, May 19 at 1 p.m. (east)

The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) champion Badgers (38-13) and the No. 2-ranked Spartans (40-10) have met just two times in previous years with Tampa taking both contests, winning 13-1 in Pensacola during the 2018 season and 18-9 at the opening day of the 2019 South Regional on UT Field.

This year will mark only the second NCAA tournament appearance for the Badgers since completing the transition from the NAIA to NCAA Division II in the summer of 2018. The SIAC opted out of conference and postseason competition in 2020 and 2021 due to the NCAA Novel Coronavirus shutdown.

The Badgers are the top-rated team in scoring in NCAA Division II with an 11.8 runs per game average while center fielder Gage Ragona and first baseman Micah Morgan lead Division II with 88 and 82 runs scored respectively.

Badger head coach Frank Sims passed the 1,000 career wins mark on April 19, 2022 with a 6-3 home victory over the University of West Florida Argonauts. His current career record stands at 1010-928-3 over 39 seasons, including 38 seasons at SHC with a 976-918-3 mark.

Tickets will be available 90 minutes prior to games. Concessions are available at all UT home events. Pets are not allowed at UT sporting events and will be strictly enforced. Service animals are allowed as defined by federal law. "Service Animals" are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.

Live stats and video streaming for all games will be available through the UT Athletics website.

Depending on Thursday's results in the double elimination format, the Badgers will face either the No. 4 seed Valdosta State University (VSU) Blazers (30-14) or the No. 5 seed Nova Southeastern University (NSU) Sharks (34-15) on Friday. According to existing records, SHC and the No. 22-ranked Blazers have not met in a previous contest while the Sharks and the Badgers have met just once when Nova eliminated the Badgers from the 2019 South Region Tournament by a score of 6-3 in 2019.