Arvest Ballpark in Springdale and the Great American Conference have teamed up to bring another quality sporting event to Northwest Arkansas.
From May 11-13, Arvest will host the GAC’s four-team double-elimination postseason baseball tournament.
“It’s an exciting year for GAC baseball,” GAC Commissioner Will Prewitt said during media day Wednesday. “Our postseason takes a really big step this year, partnering with the Northwest Arkansas Naturals and Explore Springdale to play the GAC tournament in Springdale at Arvest Ballpark. It’s a beautiful ballpark. It’s going to be an incredible experience for those four teams that qualify for the weekend of the tournament.” Th e four-team double-elimination tournament is the second weekend of GAC postseason play.
The first weekend, May 4-6, the top four teams from the regular season will host the next four teams in a best-of-three series. Those teams will be seeded from the 33-game regular season which features a round-robin schedule of three-game series for the 12 conference teams. The GAC is comprised of six universities from Arkansas and six from Oklahoma.
The four winners will advance to play a true double-elimination tournament at Arvest Ballpark.
“The Northwest Arkansas Naturals and Arvest Ballpark are proud to partner with the Great American Conference to host the Baseball Championships at Arvest Ballpark in 2023,” Naturals Vice President/General Manager Justin Cole said in a statement. “We can’t wait to welcome these teams, schools, alumni and their families to Springdale and Northwest Arkansas.” The three-day tournament will provide baseball fans the opportunity to see one of the major Division II baseball conferences in the country.
“We’re always excited to start baseball season,” Prewitt said. “Obviously, it’s one of our most competitive sports. I’m proud of what the coaches have built. There aren’t many leagues in Division II that have the type of depth that our conference has. Ten of the 12 GAC baseball programs have been regionally ranked in the past five years. We’re consistently among the top five leagues among the 23 conferences that play Division II baseball by various metrics.” The GAC will also be just the second Division II conference to play its championships in a Class AA minor league facility along with the South Atlantic Conference, which plays its championship round at the home of the Tennessee Smokies in Kodak, Tenn.
“We had heard from coaches in our league that have ties to the Naturals that there was a possibility that we could play our event in Springdale,” Prewitt said. “We had some preliminary discussions. Our coaches were certainly excited about the possibility of playing in a Double-A facility followed by our athletic administrators and presidents. We were excited to work with the staff with the Naturals and had some great conversations on making this quality experience for our student-athletes and beyond that making it a good event for northwest Arkansas.” The GAC softball tournament is played at Bentonville High, and the positive feedback from that helped set up the possibility of the GAC baseball tournament being played in Northwest Arkansas as well.
“It’s been one of the most positive things about our softball championship,” Prewitt said. “All 12 of our institutions love having a presence in northwest Arkansas. It’s an incredibly vibrant area that’s growing every year. It’s great for us to have a presence. The Naturals are going to make this an incredible experience for our student-athletes.” All six Arkansas universities in the GAC have players on the roster from Northwest Arkansas.
Southern Arkansas University received 10 of 12 first-place votes in the coaches’ preseason poll released two weeks ago. Last season, SAU won the conference, conference tournament, regional and super regional to advance to the NCAA Division II national championships in Cary, N.C.
At a glance
2023 GAC BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS SCHEDULE
MAY 5-6 (AT HIGHER SEED)
Best 2-of-3 SERIES 1 No. 8 at No. 1 SERIES 2 No. 5 at No. 4 SERIES 3 No. 6 at No. 3 SERIES 4 No. 7 at No. 2
MAY 11
At Arvest Ballpark, Springdale GAME 1 Series 1 Winner vs. Series 2 Winner, 1 p.m.
GAME 2 Series 3 Winner vs. Series 4 Winner, 5 p.m.
MAY 12
GAME 3 Winner Game 1 vs. Winner 2, 11 a.m.
GAME 4 Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 3 p.m.
GAME 5 Winner Game 4 vs. Loser Game 3, 7 p.m.
MAY 13
GAME 6 Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5, noon GAME 7 Second Championship Game (if necessary)