OXFORD, Ala. — West Florida won the 2024 Gulf South Conference Baseball Championship on Tuesday, capturing back-to-back tournament titles for the first time in program history.
Delta State won the opening game of the day, 9-8, but UWF bounced back in the in necessary game, 7-2, to celebrate its fourth-ever conference tournament trophy. The Argonauts are lowest-seeded team to win the title since 2010, and the first to win back-to-back tournament titles since Delta State did it in 2016 and 2017.
As a result, West Florida also claimed the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division II region championship. Delta State and the rest of the league will await to hear its name called in the NCAA Selection Show, streamed on NCAA.com on Sunday, May 12.
CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL
Game 15: West Florida 7, Delta State 2
After dropping the opening game, the Argonauts hung up a five-spot in the first and never looked back. Cade Easterbrook—the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player—kicked off the scoring pushing Jadon Fryman across with a RBI-double.
The Argos then tallied an insurance run in the second and one in the fourth. They finished with 12 hits from seven batters and had 15 runners left on base. The UWF offense was also highlighted by Darrien McDowell who tied a conference-record with five walks in a single-game, becoming the seventh player in history to accomplish the feat.
Delta State registered 11 hits from seven batters and stranded 11 runners. Scoring for the Statesmen was limited to one run in the first as Dylan Coleman crossed home on a Hayden Cooper double, while the other run came in the sixth as Matthew Nichols plated Brendan McCauley.
Game 14: Delta State 9, West Florida 8
The long ball was highlighted early and often in the opener as Delta State and West Florida combined for seven home runs. All nine of the Statesmen’s runs were the result of home runs as they registered two-run blasts in the first and third, while Coleman had a three-run shot in the fifth. Eric Newsome and Blayke Dendy also went deep in the sixth and eighth respectively.
The Argos meanwhile homered in the third with a two-run shot from Easterbrook in the home half of the first, before McDowell launched a solo bomb in the sixth.
Brett Burrell gave a DSU a 4-2 led in the third as he had one of five home runs for the Statesmen. The advantage was short-lived as UWF notched a four-run frame in the fourth, claiming a 6-4 lead.
Coleman erased the deficit with a three-run homer in the fifth, pushing DSU to a 7-6 lead. It was all Delta State from there as it added an insurance run in the sixth and eighth. UWF narrowed the margin to one in the sixth and ninth but were unable to get level again, allowing Delta State to force the if necessary game.