CLEVELAND, Miss. – The Delta State University Baseball Team (32-16, 23-10 GSC) will be making their 40^th appearance in the Gulf South Conference Championship Tournament this evening as they will be taking on the Falcons from the University of Montevallo (25-23, 16-17 GSC) in Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Ala., at 7:00 p.m. (CDT)
 
The Voice of the Statesmen Michael Gross will have the call on the Statesmen Sports Network as the pre-game show will start at approximately 6:30 p.m. (CDT). All games in the GSC Championship Tournament will be streamed on the FloCollege Network.
 
Scouting the Statesmen

• The Statesmen are the no. 1 seed in the tournament as they earned GSC regular season championship. Led by Gulf South Coach of the Year Rodney Batts, DSU enters the postseason with a 32-16 overall record and a 23-10 GSC record, Delta State is ranked fourth in the South Region Poll looking for a chance to host a regional with a run in the tournament. The Statesmen will be looking to win their 16^th GSC Tournament Championship as they hold a 100-56 overall record entering their 40^th appearance
• Senior right-handed Pitcher Drake Fontenot earned GSC Pitcher of the Year as he had a phenomenal regular season. The Bossier City Native earned first team All-GSC honors as he finished the season ranked first in the GSC with a 1.96 ERA, 91.2 innings pitched, nine wins, and held opponent hitters to a .208 batting average. Fontenot makes his mark in the GSC record book as his 39.1 consecutive scoreless inning streak earlier this season ranks third all-time. Fellow senior pitcher Dylan Farley earned second team All-GSC honors. The Netherlands native led all GSC starters striking out 27 batters looking. Farley went 7-4 this season with a 3.44 ERA, striking out 69 batters, while holding opposing hitters to a .274 batting average.
• Joining Fontenot is the first team All-GSC is outfielder Brett Burrell. Burrell led the Statesmen with a .398 batting average (ranks third in the GSC), with 12 doubles, 10 home runs and 49 runs driven in. The Cleveland native also ranked amongst the top three in the GSC with an ops of 1.146, an on base percentage of .483, and a slugging percentage of .663. Burrell led the GSC with six sacrifice flies this season.

 
Scouting the Falcons

• Montevallo enters the GSC Tournament as the last team in, earning the eight seed with a 25-23 overall record and a 16-17 record in conference play. The Falcons will be making their 11^th appearance with a 14-20 overall record and one finals appearance
• The Statesmen will likely see south paw Aidel Martinez. Martinez earned the First-Team All-Conference nod as he had a season where he pitched to an 8-5 record with an ERA of 2.22, 85 innings pitched, 21 earned runs, 28 walks and 85 strikeouts. Last time the Statesmen saw Martinez, they had 12 hits leading to seven runs (three earned) in a 7-1 win in early April in Montevallo.
• On the offensive end, the Falcons have second team All-GSC honoree McGuire Turner. Turner at the plate this season, had a batting average of .412, 77 hits, 44 runs scored, eight doubles, eight homers, 43 RBI, 109 total bases, a slugging percentage of .583, an on base percentage of .491 and an OPS of 1.074.