The 2026 Southern Conference baseball season is the baseball season for the Southern Conference as part of the 2026 NCAA Division I baseball season. was predicted to win the conference in the preseason poll. The conference tournament was played from May 20 to May 23 at Fluor Field at the West End in Greenville, South Carolina.

The won the regular season SoCon championship and obtained the #1 seed in the conference tournament. The Citadel Bulldogs won the conference tournament, thereby receiving an automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA Division I baseball tournament. Consequently, the Bears became the highest-ranked team in terms of the NCAA's rating percentage index (RPI) metric (finishing 28th) to be left out of the NCAA tournament since the super-regional format was adopted in 1999.

Regular season The Southern Conference began conference play on March 20. Conference play ended on May 16. Each team played 21 conference games, with three games against each conference opponent home or away.

In regular season play, won the outright SoCon regular season title by one game. The eight SoCon baseball coaches voted Chris Katz of Mercer as 2026 SoCon Baseball Player of the Year and Alec Bouchard of as 2026 SoCon Baseball Pitcher of the Year. Garrett Lambert of Mercer was selected as 2026 SoCon Baseball Freshman of the Year, and Craig Gibson of Mercer was voted 2026 SoCon Baseball Coach of the Year. Aryan Patel of The Citadel was voted as the 2026 SoCon Baseball Golden Glove recipient, which was given to the 2026 SoCon Baseball Defensive Player of the Year.

Conference Game Results and Standings Conference game results and standings are presented below, and include all regular season games.

Regular Season Honors Southern Conference Baseball awards for regular-season performance were unveiled on May 19, 2026. 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: Player of the Year: Chris Katz () Pitcher of the Year: Alec Bouchard () Freshman of the Year: Garrett Lambert () Coach of the Year: Craig Gibson () Golden Glove Recipient: Aryan Patel (CIT)

All-Southern Conference Teams Source:

Position All SoCon First Team All SoCon Second Team SP Alec Bouchard () Michael Harpster (ETSU) SP Garrett Lambert () Andrew Buffkin (CIT) SP Will Holmes (CIT) Cullen Condon () RP Mason Snyder (WCU) Michael Gibson (CIT) RP Jess Ackerman () Andrew Garnett () RP Zak Spurrier () Zane Davis (CIT) C Cade Carr () Cole Raile (VMI)Noah Quarless (WCU) 1B Grayson Fitzwater (VMI)Tristan Curless (ETSU) Michael Gibson (CIT) 2B Trent Turner (WCU)) Ian Guanzon (ETSU) SS Titan Kamaka () Henry Ferguson (ETSU) 3B Brant Baughcum () Jacob Budzik () OF Chris Katz () Ben Timblin () OF Eli Stephens () Jamie Palmese (ETSU) OF Jake Souders () Luke Boykin () DH Braydon Kersey () Nate Conner (ETSU)

All SoCon Defensive Team All SoCon Freshman Team Aryan Patel (CIT) Garrett Lambert () Grayson Fitzwater (VMI) Jaylen Jones (WCU)) Owen Prince (VMI) Brady Gold () Henry Ferguson (ETSU) Jayden Williams (CIT) Jayden Williams (CIT) Evan Myers (WCU)) Parker McDonald () Eddie Marshall () Jamie Palmese (ETSU) Cooper Jones (ETSU) Cade Carr () Tanner Berry () Jeff Ince () Mason Ault (ETSU) Niko Brini () Ethan Buffone () Trent Turner (WCU)) Ayden West () Gus Gandy () Buddy Baker (VMI)

Tournament

The 2026 Southern Conference baseball tournament was held from May 20 through May 23 at Fluor Field at the West End in Greenville, South Carolina. The winner of the conference tournament received an automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA Division I baseball tournament.

Beginning with the 2026 edition of the tournament, two separate brackets were maintained until the championship game, consisting of four teams each. All eight SoCon baseball teams participated in the tournament and were placed in a bracket and seeded based on regular season conference record. The bottom four seeds played in the single-elimination first round to begin the tournament. The two first round winners then joined the top four seeds in two separate double-elimination brackets, with the top two seeds receiving byes into the third round, and the third and fourth placed teams playing the first round winners in the second round. Once one team advanced from each bracket, they played each other in a winner-take-all championship game. The were defending champions, having won the 2025 edition of the tournament.

In the first round, the fifth-seeded The Citadel Bulldogs and seventh-seeded defeated the eighth-seeded VMI Keydets and sixth-seeded East Tennessee State Buccaneers, respectively, to advance to the second round. The Keydets and Buccaneers were thereby eliminated from the conference tournament.

In the top half of the bracket, The Citadel upset the fourth-seeded in the second round, advancing to the third round of the tournament. The Citadel then defeated the top-seeded to advance to the tournament semifinals. This resulted in the Terriers and Bears playing in an elimination game, with the Bears winning that game by one run. This set up a rematch between Mercer and The Citadel in the semifinals, with the Bulldogs once again victorious in run-rule fashion, giving The Citadel a berth in the championship game.

On the other side of the bracket, the Spartans were defeated by the third-seeded . Samford then upset the second-seeded Western Carolina Catamounts, setting up an elimination game between the Catamounts and Spartans. This game was won by Western Carolina, setting up a rematch between Samford and Western Carolina in the tournament semifinals. Samford defeated the Catamounts in extra innings, setting up a championship match between both of the SoCon's Bulldogs.

New to this year's tournament, the championship game was winner-take-all for the automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA tournament. The Citadel won the championship match, outscoring Samford by two runs, to give The Citadel Bulldogs their first NCAA tournament berth since their 2010 season.

Michael Gibson of The Citadel received the Walt Nadzak Award (named after Walt Nadzak) for being voted as the tournament's most outstanding player.

Seeding Teams were seeded based on conference record, with one two-way tie being broken by head-to-head record among the two teams. No ties involved three or more teams during the 2026 regular season.

Bracket

Game times are in EDT.All games televised on ESPN+.Rankings denote tournament seed.Superscripted number next to scores denote games that use extra innings or the run rule.Source: Southern Conference

Schedule GameTimeMatchupScoreReference Day 1 (Wednesday, May 20) 1 9:00 a.m. No. 5 The Citadel vs. No. 8 VMI 21–11(8) 2 1:30 p.m. No. 6 East Tennessee State vs. No. 7 UNC Greensboro 5–6 3 5:15 p.m. No. 5 The Citadel vs. No. 4 Wofford 13–7 4 9:25 p.m. No. 7 UNC Greensboro vs. No. 3 Samford 1–13(7) Day 2 (Thursday, May 21) 5 9:00 a.m. No. 5 The Citadel vs. No. 1 Mercer 9–2 6 12:55 p.m. No. 3 Samford vs. No. 2 Western Carolina 9–5 7 4:50 p.m. No. 1 Mercer vs. No. 4 Wofford 9–8 8 8:40 p.m. No. 2 Western Carolina vs. No. 7 UNC Greensboro 4–3 Day 3 (Friday, May 22) 9 9:00 a.m. No. 5 The Citadel vs. No. 1 Mercer 14–4(7) 10 12:30 p.m. No. 3 Samford vs. No. 2 Western Carolina 5–1(13) 11 Game skipped due to result of Game 9 12 Game skipped due to result of Game 10 Day 4 (Saturday, May 23) 13 7:00 p.m. No. 5 The Citadel vs. No. 3 Samford 3–1 Game times are in EDT.All games televised on ESPN+.Rankings denote tournament seed.Superscripted number next to scores denote games that use extra innings or the run rule.Source: Southern Conference</onlyinclude>

Tournament Honors The Southern Conference announced tournament honors on May 23, 2026. These awards included the Walt Nadzak Award, named after Walt Nadzak, for the tournament's most outstanding player, and the 2026 All-Tournament Team. The Walt Nadzak Award was won by Michael Gibson of The Citadel.

All-Tournament Team PositionPlayer SP Will Holmes (CIT) SP Garrett Lambert () SP Mason Blasche () RP Cannon Lee () C Phillips Daniels (CIT) 1B Zach Hunt (CIT) 2B Jeffrey Ince () SS Lane Tobin (CIT)Gus Gandy () 3B Brant Baughcum () OF Chris Katz () OF Luke Boykin () OF Christian Stratis (CIT) DH Michael Gibson (CIT)

Conference leaders

+ Hitting leaders Stat Player Total AVG Michael Gibson (CIT) .394 OPS Chris Katz () 1.301 HR Chris Katz ()) 23 RBI Chris Katz () 74 R Chris Katz () 82 H Chris Katz () 85 SB Owen Prince (VMI) 29

+ Pitching leaders Stat Player Total W Alec Bouchard ()Miguel Hugas () 9 L Carter Burnette (WCU) 9 ERA Andrew Buffkin (CIT) 2.62 K Will Holmes (CIT) 112 IP Will Holmes (CIT) 88 SV Michael Gibson (CIT) 10 WHIP Alec Bouchard ()Hunter Sipe (VMI) 1.15

Updated to games played as of May 23, 2026. Includes all regular season conference and non-conference games, as well as conference tournament games. Source: Southern ConferenceNote: AVG, OPS, ERA, and WHIP leaders must qualify for their respective leaderboards per the SoCon Baseball 2026 Statistics webpage.

See also 2026 in baseball

References