The 2023 Golden State Athletic Conference Baseball Conference Tournament is just around the corner. Come Monday morning, our top 5 teams will compete at OC Great Park in Irvine with the tournament being hosted by Vanguard University. The tournament will begin May 1st and conclude with the championship game being held May 3rd at 2:00 PM and an if necessary game May 4th at 1:00 PM. The five teams competing this 2023 season are as follows.

Our number one seeded team this year is the Warriors of Westmont. Westmont baseball clinched the regular season championship title with a 20-4 record in GSAC standings. The Warriors finished the regular season with their seventh sweep of the season beating OUAZ 16-1 in their final game. Westmont sits second overall in both hitting and pitching and looks to continue their hot streak as the GSAC Regular Season Champions. Westmont will face the winner of game one, either the 4th or 5th seed, on Monday at 6:00 PM. Can the Warriors continue their hot streak? Follow along to find out!

Hope International is our second seeded team in the 2023 tournament. In 2022, the Royals were seeded first and won the GSAC Tournament in a close championship game against Jessup University. Hector Garcia and Connor Martin have been lights out on the bump for the Royals during the regular season competition. Max Jung-Goldberg has been explosive in the batter’s box as he is batting .463 during conference and an .800 slugging percentage. The Royals finished with a record of 19-5 and look to make a lot of noise come next week. Hope has some tough competition ahead of them as they face #3 Vanguard University in the second game on Monday starting at 2:00 PM. The defending champs look to bring back the championship and defend their title.

Vanguard University sits as the third seed this postseason. The Lions (15-9 GSAC) look to their bullpen to help lead them through the tournament as they are first overall in the GSAC in pitching with an overall ERA of 3.83. Vanguard’s offense always looks to stay hot as they scored a total of 305 runs throughout their season. With hopes of hot bats and lights out pitching, the Lions look to make a deep run in this year’s tournament and look to bring home a GSAC Championship back to Costa Mesa.

The Mustangs of The Master’s University are the No. 4 seeded team. The Mustangs finished 13-11 in GSAC and 26-22 overall. The Master’s will kick off our tournament at 10:00 AM against the Firestorm of ACU. The Master’s have proven to be masters with the gloves as they stand out with their rather stellar defense holding a 0.975 team fielding percentage to end their regular season. TMU hopes to play a big two games on Monday and make an impressive run through the remainder of the tournament. The Mustang’s are looking to turn heads at the Great Park next week!

Our fifth seeded team is the Firestorm of Arizona Christian. ACU finished their season with a 11-13 record. The Firestorm will take on TMU in game one of our conference tournament. ACU has a tough path but hopes to make a long run. Getting a hot start out the gate can send the Firestorm into a very good position for the rest of the week.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Monday, May 1
Game 1           Seed #4 The Master's vs. Seed #5 Arizona Christian – 10:00 am
Game 2           Seed #2 Hope International vs. Seed #3 Vanguard – 2:00 pm
Game 3           Seed #1 Westmont vs. Winner of Game 1 – 6:00 pm

Tuesday, May 2
Game 4           Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2 – 10:00 am
Game 5           Winner of Game 2 vs. Winner of Game 3 – 2:00 pm
Game 6           Winner of Game 4 vs. Loser of Game 3 – 6:00 pm
 
Wednesday, May 3
Game 7           Loser of Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6 – 10:00 am
Game 8           Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 7 – 2:00 pm

Thursday, May 4
Game 9           If Loser Game 8 has just one loss, two teams will play again - 1:00 pm