2025 Southern Conference baseball season

2025 Southern Conference baseball season
LeagueSouthern Conference
SportBaseball
DurationFebruary 14, 2025 - June 23, 2025
Number of games21 (conference)
Number of teams8
TV partner(s)ESPN+
Regular Season
Season championsEast Tennessee State
Season MVPPlayer: Cooper Torres (ETSU)
Pitcher: Brady Frederick (ETSU)
Conference Tournament
ChampionsEast Tennessee State
  Runners-upSamford
Tournament MVPCooper Torres (ETSU)
Conf. Overall
Team W   L   PCT W   L   PCT
East Tennessee State ‍†‍‡‍y 14 – 7   .667 41 – 17   .707
Samford  ‍‍‍ 13 – 8   .619 30 – 27   .526
The Citadel  ‍‍‍ 12 – 9   .571 31 – 26   .544
Mercer  ‍‍‍ 12 – 9   .571 35 – 25   .583
Western Carolina  ‍‍‍ 10 – 11   .476 30 – 28   .517
UNC Greensboro  ‍‍‍ 9 – 12   .429 21 – 33   .389
Wofford  ‍‍‍ 8 – 13   .381 33 – 27   .550
VMI  ‍‍‍ 6 – 15   .286 27 – 26   .509
† – Conference champion
‡ – Tournament champion
y – Invited to the NCAA tournament
As of May 31, 2025[1]
Rankings from D1Baseball

The 2025 Southern Conference baseball season is the baseball season for the Southern Conference as part of the 2025 NCAA Division I baseball season. UNC Greensboro was predicted to win the conference in the preseason poll.[2] The conference tournament is being played from May 21 to May 25 at Fluor Field at the West End in Greenville, South Carolina.[3]

The East Tennessee State Buccaneers won the regular season SoCon championship and obtained the #1 seed in the conference tournament. East Tennessee State also won the conference tournament, thereby receiving an automatic bid to the 2025 NCAA Division I baseball tournament.

Regular Season

The Southern Conference began conference play on March 21 and ended on May 17. Each team played 21 conference games, with three games against each conference opponent home or away.

In regular season play, East Tennessee State won the outright SoCon regular season title by one game. The eight SoCon baseball coaches voted Cooper Torres of East Tennessee State as 2025 SoCon Baseball Player of the Year and Brady Frederick of East Tennessee State as 2025 SoCon Baseball Pitcher of the Year.[4] Axel Melendez of East Tennessee State was selected as 2025 SoCon Baseball Freshman of the Year, and Joe Pennucci of Ease Tennessee State was voted 2025 SoCon Baseball Coach of the Year.[4] Bradley Frye of Mercer was voted as the 2025 SoCon Baseball Golden Glove recipient, which is given to the 2025 SoCon Baseball Defensive Player of the Year.[4]

Conference Game Results and Standings

Pos Team Pld CW CL CPCT GB W L PCT Qualification
1 East Tennessee State (C) 53 14 7 .667 — 38 15 .717 Qualification for the third round of conference tournament
2 Samford 53 13 8 .619 1 28 25 .528
3 The Citadel 54 12 9 .571 2 30 24 .556 Qualification for the second round of conference tournament
4 Mercer 56 12 9 .571 2 33 23 .589
5 Western Carolina 54 10 11 .476 4 28 26 .519 Qualification for the play-in round of conference tournament
6 UNC Greensboro 53 9 12 .429 5 21 32 .396
7 Wofford 56 8 13 .381 6 31 25 .554
8 VMI 52 6 15 .286 8 27 25 .519
Source: Southern Conference[1]
(C) Regular season champion(s)
Home \ Away CIT ETSU MER SAM UNCG VMI WCU WOF
The Citadel 2–1 2–1 3–0 1–2
East Tennessee State 2–1 1–2 3–0 2–1
Mercer 1–2 2–1 3–0 2–1
Samford 2–1 3–0 1–2
UNC Greensboro 1–2 1–2 3–0
VMI 0–3 1–2 1–2 1–2
Western Carolina 2–1 1–2 2–1
Wofford 2–1 0–3 2–1
Source: Southern Conference[5]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Red = away team win.

Regular Season Honors

Southern Conference Baseball awards for regular-season performance were unveiled on May 19, 2025. These awards included awards for player, pitcher, freshman, coach, and defensive players of the year, as well as all-conference first, second, defensive, and freshman teams.

Individual Honors

Source:[4]

  • Player of the Year: Cooper Torres (ETSU)
  • Pitcher of the Year: Brady Frederick (ETSU)
  • Freshman of the Year: Axel Melendez (ETSU)
  • Coach of the Year: Joe Pennucci (ETSU)
  • Golden Glove Recipient: Bradley Frye (MER)

All-Southern Conference Teams

Source:[4]

Tournament

2025 Southern Conference
baseball tournament
Teams8
FormatSingle elimination play-in, then six-team double-elimination tournament
Finals site
ChampionsEast Tennessee State (1st title)
Winning coachJoe Pennucci (1st title)
MVPCooper Torres (ETSU)
TelevisionESPN+

The 2025 Southern Conference baseball tournament was held from May 21 through May 25 at Fluor Field at the West End in Greenville, South Carolina. The winner of the conference tournament receives an automatic bid to the 2025 NCAA Division I baseball tournament.

All eight SoCon baseball teams participated in the tournament and were seeded based on regular season conference record. The bottom four seeds played in a single-elimination play-in round to begin the tournament. The two play-in round winners then joined the top four seeds in a six-team double-elimination tournament, with the top two seeds receiving byes into the third round, and the third and fourth placed teams playing the play-in round winners in the second round.[3] The Wofford Terriers were defending champions, having won the 2024 edition of the tournament.

Both play-in round winners, the Western Carolina Catamounts and Wofford, made it to the third round of the tournament, but lost their third-round games to the top two seeds, East Tennessee State Buccaneers and Samford Bulldogs, respectively, in the tournament. Western Carolina and Wofford then fell to The Citadel Bulldogs and Mercer Bears following their third-round losses.

Mercer and The Citadel both began tournament play in the second round with losses to Western Carolina and Wofford, respectively. The Bears and The Citadel then each won their first elimination game, and met each other in an elimination game afterwards. Mercer won this elimination game, but fell in their next game to Samford.

East Tennessee State and Samford received byes into the third round as the top two regular season teams. Samford won their opening matchup against The Citadel, followed by a loss to East Tennessee State in the semifinal round. Samford then won their only game in the lower bracket, resulting in another matchup with the Buccaneers in the championship match. However, East Tennessee State would prevail again, winning their first SoCon tournament title as a member of the Southern Conference, and qualified for their first NCAA tournament berth since 2013, when they were members of the Atlantic Sun Conference.

Cooper Torres of East Tennessee State received the Walt Nadzak Award (named after Walt Nadzak) for being voted as the tournament's most outstanding player.[6]

Seeding

Pos Team Pld CW CL CPCT GB W L PCT Qualification
1 East Tennessee State (T) 53 14 7 .667 — 38 15 .717 Awarded automatic bid to NCAA tournament
2 Samford 53 13 8 .619 1 28 25 .528 Not invited to NCAA tournament
3 The Citadel 54 12 9 .571 2 30 24 .556
4 Mercer 56 12 9 .571 2 33 23 .589
5 Western Carolina 54 10 11 .476 4 28 26 .519
6 UNC Greensboro 53 9 12 .429 5 21 32 .396
7 Wofford 56 8 13 .381 6 31 25 .554
8 VMI 52 6 15 .286 8 27 25 .519
Source: Southern Conference[1]
(T) Conference tournament champion

Bracket

Play-in round
Wednesday, May 21		Second round
Thursday, May 22		Third round
Friday, May 23		Semifinals
Saturday, May 24		Final
Sunday May, 25
Game 5 - 9:00 a.m.
Game 3 - 3:00 p.m.1East Tennessee State16
Game 1 - 3:00 p.m.4Mercer35Western Carolina13
Game 9 - 12:00 p.m.
5Western Carolina1575Western Carolina10
1East Tennessee State14
8VMI1
2Samford8
Game 6 - 12:30 p.m.
Game 4 - 7:00 p.m.2Samford12
Game 2 - 7:00 p.m.3The Citadel47Wofford7
6UNC Greensboro27Wofford12Games 12/13 - 12:00 p.m.
7Wofford41East Tennessee State7-
2Samford5-
Lower third round
Friday, May 23		Lower semifinal
Saturday, May 24		Lower final
Saturday, May 24
Game 7 - 4:00 p.m.
3The Citadel11Game 11 - 7:00 p.m.
5Western Carolina10Game 10 - 3:30 p.m.2Samford5
3The Citadel24Mercer1
Game 8 - 7:30 p.m.4Mercer4
4Mercer8
7Wofford6

Game times are in EDT.
Rankings denote tournament seed.
Superscripted number next to scores denote games that use extra innings or the run rule.
Source: Southern Conference[3]

Schedule

Game Time* Matchup# Score Reference
Day 1 (Wednesday, May 21)
1 3:00 p.m. #5 Western Carolina vs. #8 VMI 15−17 [7]
2 7:00 p.m. #6 UNC Greensboro vs. #7 Wofford 2−4 [7]
Day 2 (Thursday, May 22)
3 3:00 p.m. #5 Western Carolina vs. #4 Mercer 10−3 [8]
4 7:00 p.m. #7 Wofford vs. #3 The Citadel 12−4 [8]
Day 3 (Friday, May 23)
5 9:00 a.m. #5 Western Carolina vs. #1 East Tennessee State 13−16 [9]
6 12:30 p.m. #7 Wofford vs. #2 Samford 7−12 [9]
7 4:00 p.m. #3 The Citadel vs. #5 Western Carolina 11−10 [10]
8 7:30 p.m. #4 Mercer vs. #7 Wofford 8-6 [10]
Day 4 (Saturday, May 24)
9 12:00 p.m. #1 East Tennessee State vs. #2 Samford 14−8 [11]
10 3:30 p.m. #4 Mercer vs #3 The Citadel 4−2 [11]
11 7:00 p.m. #4 Mercer vs. #2 Samford 1−5 [11]
Day 5 (Sunday, May 25)
12 12:00 p.m. #1 East Tennessee State vs. #2 Samford 7−5 [6]
* Game times are in EDT.
# Rankings denote tournament seed.
Superscripted number next to scores denote games that use extra innings or the run rule.
Source: Southern Conference[3]

Tournament Honors

The Southern Conference announced tournament honors on May 25, 2025. These awards included the Walt Nadzak Award, named after Walt Nadzak, for the tournament's most outstanding player, the Pinnacle Award for the member of the championship-winning team with the highest grade point average (GPA), as well as the 2025 All-Tournament Team.

Individual Awards[6]

  • Walt Nadzak Award (Most Outstanding Player): Cooper Torres (ETSU)
  • Pinnacle Award (Highest GPA on championship-winning team): Tristan Curless (ETSU)

All-Tournament Team[6]

Position Player
SP Mason Blasche (SAM)
SP Colton Cosper (MER)
SP Alec Bouchard (WOF)
RP Evan Steckmesser (SAM)
RP Terry Busse (MER)
RP Brady Frederick (ETSU)
C JD Yakubinis (ETSU)
1B Jackson Harris (SAM)
2B Travis Elliott (CIT)
SS Cody Miller (ETSU)
3B Aryan Patel (CIT)
OF Brayden Corn (WCU)
OF Axel Menendez (ETSU)
OF Jake Souder (SAM)
DH Cooper Torres (ETSU)


Conference leaders

Updated to all games played in 2025 season. Includes regular season conference and non-conference games, as well as conference and NCAA tournament games.
Source: Southern Conference[12]
Note: AVG, OPS, ERA, and WHIP leaders must qualify for their respective leaderboards per the SoCon Baseball 2025 Statistics webpage.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "SoCon Baseball 2025 Standings". soconsports.com. Retrieved May 25, 2025.
  2. ^ "UNCG Predicted to win 2025 SoCon Baseball Title". soconsports.com. February 6, 2025. Retrieved March 23, 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d "2025 Baseball Championship presented by Holston Gases". soconsports.com. Retrieved May 17, 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d e "SoCon Baseball Postseason Awards Announced". Retrieved May 20, 2025.
  5. ^ "SoCon Baseball 2025 Schedule". soconsports.com. Retrieved May 17, 2025.
  6. ^ a b c d "ETSU Wins 2025 Southern Conference Baseball Championship". soconsports.com. Retrieved May 25, 2025.
  7. ^ a b "Western Carolina, Wofford Advance at SoCon Baseball Championship". soconsports.com. Retrieved May 21, 2025.
  8. ^ a b "No. 5 Western Carolina, No. 7 Wofford Advance at SoCon Baseball Championship". soconsports.com. Retrieved May 22, 2025.
  9. ^ a b "No. 1 ETSU, No. 2 Samford Win at SoCon Baseball Tournament". soconsports.com. Retrieved May 23, 2025.
  10. ^ a b "The Citadel, Mercer Advance in the 2025 SoCon Baseball Tournament". soconsports.com. Retrieved May 23, 2025.
  11. ^ a b c "No. 1 ETSU, No. 2 Samford Advance to Sunday's Championship Game". soconsports.com. Retrieved May 24, 2025.
  12. ^ a b "SoCon Baseball 2025 Statistics". soconsports.com. Retrieved June 14, 2025.
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