Mid-American Conference baseball tournament

Mid-American Conference baseball tournament
Conference baseball championship
Sport	Baseball
Conference	Mid-American Conference
Number of teams	4
Format	Double-elimination
Played	1981–1983 1992–2019 2022–present
Last contest	2023
Current champion	Ball State (2nd)
Most championships	Kent State (12)
Official website	getsomemaction.com/..
Host stadiums
Campus sites (1981, 1983, 1992–2007, 2022–present) Franklin County Stadium (1982) V.A. Memorial Stadium (2008–2011) Mercy Health Stadium (2012–2019)

The Mid-American Conference baseball tournament is the conference baseball championship of the Mid-American Conference, Division I members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2022, the top four finishers participate in the double-elimination tournament, which is played at the home field of the top seed. The winner of the tournament receives an automatic berth to the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship. The tournament began in 1981, but was not held from 1984 through 1991. It returned in 1992 and was held annually through 2019. It was scheduled to be played in May 2020, but was cancelled in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. As part of several changes announced in May 2020 related to the pandemic, the tournament was eliminated along with the post-season tournaments of seven other sports, for at least four seasons. ^[1] The tournament, however, returned in May 2022 after the conference announced in May 2021 that the baseball tournament, along with all other conference tournaments that had been eliminated, would be restored for the 2021–22 athletic season. ^[2] Kent State has won the most tournament titles with 12, followed by Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan with four each.

Format and location

The MAC baseball tournament is held in mid to late May at the conclusion of the regular season. Beginning with the 2022 tournament, the format returned to its original setup with the top four teams from the regular season playing in a double-elimination bracket, hosted by the top seed. This format was also used from the tournament's inception 1981 through 1983 and again when it was revived in 1992 through 1997. The 1992 tournament was also when All-Tournament Team and Most Valuable Player were instituted. Beginning in 1998, the conference was divided into East and West divisions for the regular season and the tournament format was expanded to a six-team field in a double-elimination bracket, with the top three finishers from each division qualifying. In 2001, the format changed from the top three in each division to the top six overall. Beginning in 2008, the tournament was changed to an eight-team, double-elimination field and moved to a neutral site, first to V.A. Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe, Ohio from 2008 through 2011, followed by All Pro Freight Stadium in Avon, Ohio, where it remained through 2019 and was scheduled to be held in 2020. The number of teams remained constant through the 2017 tournament, but was reduced back to six teams for the 2018 and 2019 tournaments following the loss of Akron in 2015 and Buffalo in 2017. The separate divisions were also eliminated after the 2017 season.

Champions

By year

The following is a list of tournament champions and sites listed by year. ^{[3] [4] [5] [6]}

Year	Site	Champion	Most Valuable Player
1981	Theunissen Stadium • Mount Pleasant, Michigan	Eastern Michigan	—
1982	Franklin County Stadium • Columbus, Ohio	Eastern Michigan	—
1983	Hyames Field • Kalamazoo, Michigan	Miami	—
No tournament held, 1984–1991
1992	Gene Michael Field • Kent, Ohio	Kent State	Dustin Hermanson (Kent State)
1993		Kent State	Ryan Beeney (Kent State)
1994		Central Michigan	Tim Fails (Kent State)
1995	Steller Field • Bowling Green, Ohio	Central Michigan	Pat Mahoney (Central Michigan)
1996	Gene Michael Field • Kent, Ohio	Akron	Dave Yoder (Akron)
1997	Trautwein Field • Athens, Ohio	Ohio	Bart Leahy (Ohio)
1998	Steller Field • Bowling Green, Ohio	Bowling Green	Bob Niemet (Bowling Green)
1999	Ball Baseball Field • Muncie, Indiana	Bowling Green	Sean Ryan (Bowling Green)
2000	Gene Michael Field • Kent, Ohio	Miami	John Lackaff (Miami)
2001	Ball Diamond • Muncie, Indiana	Kent State	John Van Benschoten (Kent State)
2002	Steller Field • Bowling Green, Ohio	Kent State	Brad Snyder (Ball State)
2003	Gene Michael Field • Kent, Ohio	Eastern Michigan	Brian Bixler (Eastern Michigan)
2004	Theunissen Stadium • Mt. Pleasant, Michigan	Kent State	Ryan Ford (Eastern Michigan)/Andy Sonnanstine (Kent State)
2005	Hayden Park • Oxford, Ohio	Miami	Paul Frietch (Miami)
2006	Schoonover Stadium • Kent, Ohio	Ball State	Kyle Dygert (Ball State)
2007	Oestrike Stadium • Ypsilanti, Michigan	Kent State	Jason Patton (Kent State)
2008	V.A. Memorial Stadium • Chillicothe, Ohio	Eastern Michigan	Jack Leonard (Eastern Michigan)
2009		Kent State	Chris Tremblay (Kent State)
2010		Kent State	Justin Gill (Kent State)
2011		Kent State	David Starn (Kent State)
2012	All Pro Freight Stadium • Avon, Ohio	Kent State	David Starn (Kent State)
2013		Bowling Green	Nick Bruns (Bowling Green)
2014		Kent State	Cody Koch (Kent State)
2015		Ohio	Logan Cozart (Ohio)
2016		Western Michigan	Keegan Akin (Western Michigan)
2017	Sprenger Stadium • Avon, Ohio	Ohio	Spencer Ibarra (Ohio)
2018		Kent State	Eli Kraus (Kent State)
2019		Central Michigan	Griffin Lockwood-Powell (Central Michigan) [7]
2020	Crushers Stadium • Avon, Ohio	Cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic
No tournament held in 2021
2022	Ball Diamond • Muncie, Indiana	Central Michigan	Garrett Navarra (Central Michigan)
2023	Schoonover Stadium • Kent, Ohio	Ball State	Adam Tellier (Ball State)

By school

The following is a list of tournament champions listed by school and the years each team was eligible to play in the tournament.

Program	Tenure	Titles	Title years
Kent State	1981–1983 1992–2020 2022–present	12	1992, 1993, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2018
Central Michigan	1981–2020 1992–2020 2022–present	4	1994, 1995, 2019, 2022
Eastern Michigan	1981–1983 1992–2020 2022–present	4	1981, 1982, 2003, 2008
Bowling Green	1981–1983 1992–2020 2022–present	3	1998, 1999, 2013
Miami	1981–1983 1992–2020 2022–present	3	1983, 2000, 2005
Ohio	1981–1983 1992–2020 2022–present	3	1997, 2015, 2017
Ball State	1981–1983 1992–2020 2022–present	2	2006, 2023
Akron	1993–2015 2020 2022–present	1	1996
Western Michigan	1981–1983 1992–2020 2022–present	1	2016
Northern Illinois	1981–1982 1998–2020 2022–present	0
Toledo	1981–1983 1992–2020 2022–present	0
Marshall	1998–2005	0
Buffalo	2001–2017	0

Former conference members shaded in ██ silver

References

1. Strack, Jordan (May 12, 2020). "Major changes coming to Mid-American Conference". WTOL . Retrieved May 12, 2020.
2. Paul, Tony (May 7, 2021). "MAC's back! Conference restores eight championships cut amid pandemic". The Detroit News. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
3. "Ohio Bobcats 2012 Media Guide" (PDF). ohiobobcats.com. Retrieved April 22, 2012.
4. 2012 Miami RedHawks Baseball Media Guide (PDF). muredhawks.com. pp. 10–17. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
5. "Mid-American Conference Tournament History" (PDF). Mid-American Conference. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 9, 2014. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
6. "All-Tournament Teams & Tournament MVP's" (PDF). Mid-American Sports. Retrieved May 4, 2013.
7. "Chippewas Win First MAC Baseball Championship Since 1995". Mid-American Conference. May 25, 2019. Retrieved October 28, 2019.