Keydet Baseball SoCon Tournament Preview

LEXINGTON, VA. The VMI baseball team will enter the upcoming Southern Conference baseball tournament presented by the Holston Gases this week as the no. 5 seed, the program’s highest ranking in five years. The entire eight-team tournament will be held at Fluor Field in Greenville, SC, home of the Greenville Drive of the Boston Red Sox High-A East baseball team.

VMI opens the tournament with a playoff game against No. 8 The Citadel on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. The winner will advance to the double elimination portion of the bracket and become the next face no. 4 seed ETSU Thursday at 15:00 VMI was selected seventh in the coaches’ preseason poll and eighth by the league’s media representatives.

Tournament information:
Tournament Series (PDF)
A center of excellence

Highlights of the regular season:
It’s already been a historic season for the Keydets, who enter the tournament with a 26-28 record after going 9-11 in SoCon action. Some notable achievements include e.g.

*The Keydets lead NCAA Division I with 189 stolen bases, 27 ahead of second. VMI broke the NCAA Division I record for most stolen bases in an inning with nine in the second frame against Norfolk State University on the 19th. in March, breaking the mark that had been held since the 1993 season. The Keydets stole a total of 14 bags in that contest against NSU to break the school record for stolen bases in a game.

*VMI is sixth in the nation with a .324 batting average, is 14th^th 598 hits and ranked 20th^th with 445 runs. Keydets is sixth with 134 doubles, 16th^th .535 slugging percentage and 27^th with an on-base percentage of .411.

*VMI’s SoCon winning percentage is the team’s best since 2018, and 26 wins ties the 2018 team. With Wednesday’s win against the Bulldogs, it marks the program’s most wins since 2011.

*Two Keydets were named to national watch lists this spring; Zac Morris on the Brooks Wallace (SS) Award Watch List and Trey Morgan John Olerud to the Two-Way Player Watch list.

*VMI didn’t achieve national recognition until the second game of the season when it overcame a 10-1 deficit to beat Mississippi State, the 2021 national champion, 14-13.

* Junior right fielder Cole Jenkins earned Perfect Game/Rawlings National Player of the Week honors on April 10, VMI’s first national player of the week since 2018. Jenkins was also April’s SoCon Player of the Month, while Jenkins, Morris and Justin Starke he was recognized as conference player of the week at several points during the season. Will Riley earned SoCon Pitcher of the Week honors on April 17.

About Citadel:
The Bulldogs are 22-29 overall and finished with a 7-14 SoCon record. The Citadel won the conference series against VMI in Charleston 5-7. May and won two out of three games. VMI won the series final 3-2.

Travis Lott has a team-best .331 batting average with 31 walks and a .469 on-base percentage. Thomas Rollauer has a .321 average with 38 runs and 15 doubles. Cameron Reeves is the team’s ace, posting a 3.62 ERA with a 7-5 record and 64 strikeouts in 74.2 innings.