SAN ANTONIO — After trekking through a regular season that earned them the Heartland Conference regular-season championship and an at-large bid to the regional tournament, the time has finally come for the Rattlers to defend their title.
Crowned the South Central Region Champions in the 2012 season, the 2013 Rattlers have made base in Kingsville, Texas this weekend for their fourth consecutive South Central Region Tournament berth.
A 45-minute, humid practice with scattered drizzle Wednesday was the backdrop to the Rattlers' last prep before the tournament as it's all or nothing starting Thursday.
St. Mary's Baseball has seen all but two of the other five teams competing in the tournament including Angelo State, host Texas A&M-Kingsville and rival St. Edward's. As the defending regional champions, the Rattlers will open their tournament play with a matchup against Colorado Mesa at 3 p.m. Thursday at TAMUK's Nolan Ryan Field.
The Rattlers' opener will mark the first time in the program's history it will contend against Colorado Mesa, as the Mavericks enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed.
Opening the tournament will be No. 3 Angelo State vs. No. 4 St. Edward's at 11 a.m., followed by No. 2 Colorado Mesa vs. No. 5 St. Mary's at 3 p.m. The last matchup for the tournament's opening day Thursday will be No. 1 Texas A&M-Kingsville vs. No. 6 Colorado State-Pueblo at 7 p.m.
Live stats and live video of all the tournament's games and a Rattler broadcast for St. Mary's games can be found on TAMUK's
Tournament Central page.
St. Mary's University, as a Catholic Marianist University, fosters the formation of people in faith and educates leaders for the common good through community service, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence. The University has six athletic national titles: men's basketball (1989–NAIA), baseball (2001–NCAA Div. II), softball (1986–NAIA and 2002–NCAA Div. II) and an individual national champion in men's golf (2006–NCAA Div. II) and a national academic championship in men's golf (2009–NCAA Div. II). St. Mary's also had more than 40 percent of its athletes named to conference, regional and/or national honor rolls this past year. St. Mary's student–athletes graduation rate is 65 percent, higher than the NCAA Division II average of 55 percent. To learn more about St. Mary's, visit www.rattlerathletics.com.
