Wofford baseball wins Southern Conference championship, earns berth in NCAA Tournament

So close for the past five seasons, Wofford baseball finally won the Southern Conference and made it back to the NCAA Tournament.

The Terriers, the No. 5 seed in the SoCon championship, defeated No. 2 seed Samford twice on Sunday at Fluor Field in Greenville to earn the conference's automatic berth.

Wofford won the first game 10-9 to force a decisive winner-take-all finale. The Terriers rolled to a 15-9 victory to win the SoCon championship for the first time since 2007 and only the second time in program history.

The Terriers (41-18) await seeding and location in a four-team NCAA Regional, which will be announced Monday (noon, ESPN2). Samford (36-22) clings to hopes of receiving an at-large invitation.

Wofford finished with 18 hits in the championship game, including home runs by Dixon Black, Daniel Jackson, Tyler Hare and Andrew Mannelly. Marshall Toole, Jackson and Mannelly had three hits, and four players had two hits.

The Terriers also got a gutsy performances from freshman Camden Wicker (4-3), who pitched 6⅓ innings with only two days of rest after a six-inning start in a tournament win against Western Carolina on Thursday. Wicker allowed six runs, but only three were earned. He allowed six hits, walked two and struck out three.

The Terriers won the first game 10-9 behind sophomore right-hander Zac Cowan's strong start and a 14-hit offense led by Tyler Hare.

Cowan (9-2) pitched seven innings, allowing four runs on eight hits with one walk and seven strikeouts. He threw 102 pitches, 77 of which were strikes. Hare went 3-for-4 with five RBIs, highlighted by a three-run homer in the ninth that expanded a three-run lead to a six-run advantage.

Wofford withstood a five-run rally by Samford in the ninth inning.

The Terriers are in their first season under coach J.J. Edwards. They won the Southern Conference 17 years ago in the final season under now retired Steve Traylor. Edwards was a longtime assistant under Todd Interdonato, who is now the coach at Boston College.

Three times in the previous four seasons — the 2020 season was shut down early because of the COVID-19 virus — Wofford made it to the championship game with two chances to win in the double-elimination event and fell short. The Terriers lost to Samford last year, UNC Greensboro in 2022 and Mercer in 2019.