Kent State University
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Western Michigan
Flashes Set to Host MAC Tournament for First Time Since 2006
5/23/2023 12:03:00 PM | Baseball
KENT-For the first time since 2006, the Golden Flashes will host the Mid-American Conference tournament at Schoonover Stadium.
The four-day event will start on Wednesday afternoon when the host Flashes take on the fourth-seeded Western Michigan Broncos at 12:30 p.m. On the other side of the bracket, Central Michigan and Ball State will square off in the two-three matchup at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
This is the seventh time the Flashes have hosted the conference tournament, winning it in both 1992 and 1993. Ball State won the tourney the last time it was at Schoonover back in 2006. Kent State last won it all in 2018 with Eli Kraus earning tournament MVP honors up at Sprenger Stadium in Avon, Ohio.
This is the second year in a row that the tournament is on campus sites after going to a neutral location from 2008-2019. The Flashes went an impressive 22-1 at Schoonover Stadium this season and have a 14-game winning streak heading into the tournament.
The Flashes led the MAC at 24-6 in MAC play and led the conference in several categories this season including average, runs, doubles and on-base percentage, team earned run average, shutouts and batting average against.
Western Michigan comes into the tournament winners of five of their last six and went 18-11 in MAC play. The Broncos hit .298 in MAC play, led by Cade Sullivan who led the MAC in homers (13) and RBI (45) in conference play.
Central Michigan will be the two-seed in the tournament, posting a 19-11 conference record and winning the tie breaker over Ball State based on the head-to-head matchup. Central led the league by a wide margin with 78 stolen bases in conference play and posted a team ERA of 4.03 while holding opponents to a .241 average. Second baseman Luke Sefcik and starter Adam Mraktisch earned All-MAC first team honors.
Ball State is the three seed and posted a 19-11 in MAC play. The Cardinals were second to the Flashes with a .299 team batting average in MAC play, leading the league in hits, total bases and slugging. Third baseman Ryan Peltier and outfielder Decker Scheffler earned first-team honors.
The entire tournament will air on ESPN+ and live stats will be provided. All of the links to Kent State's games will be on the baseball schedule. For all other games, please see the MAC tournament page. For tickets and information, please see KSUTix.com, both tournament and single-game tickets are available.
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