MOBILE, Ala. ? The eighth-seeded University of South Alabama baseball team will open up play at the 2007 Sun Belt Conference Tournament Wednesday when it takes on top-seeded Louisiana-Lafayette at 7:30 p.m. at Stanky Field.

Full tournament books can be purchased for $35 each.  The seven individual session tickets may also be bought for $15 for reserved boxes, $10 for reserved chair backs, $6 for general admission and $4 for children and seniors. Individual session tickets are for two games each.  Tickets can be purchased at either the gate or by calling the USA Ticket Office at (251) 460-6047.  Fans can also enjoy the tournament via the webcast at www.sunbeltsports.org for just $9.95.  Live stats for all the games can be accessed at www.usajaguars.com.

The double elimination tournament begins Wednesday, May 23, at 9 a.m. at Stanky Field with third-seeded Middle Tennessee battling sixth-seeded Florida Atlantic.  No. 2 seed New Orleans and No. 7 seed Western Kentucky square off at 12:30 p.m. to complete the first session.  Play resumes at 4 p.m. as fourth-seeded Troy battles fifth-seeded Louisiana-Monroe.  USA and ULL will close out day-one action in the nightcap.

South Alabama (29-24, 13-16 SBC) earned a berth in the conference tournament this past weekend when the Jags took two of three from Troy.  USA dropped the series opener, but bounced back to take the final two contests on the strength of back-to-back complete game performances from senior Joey Doan and junior Kevin Nabors.  The Jag offense was led by SBC Player of the Week Clint Toomey, who hit .727 for the weekend, including a Sun Belt record 11 straight hits.

USA continues to be paced by the trio of David Doss (.355, 8 home runs, 51 RBIs), Jeff Cunningham (.350, 22 home runs, 64 RBIs and Joel Collins (.339, 10 home runs, 47 RBIs).  Cunningham was named to the all-conference’s first team on Tuesday, while Doss and Collins were each selected to the second team.

Louisiana-Lafayette enters the tournament fresh off taking two out of three from New Orleans in its regular season finale.  The Ragin’ Cajuns roared through the regular season, finishing with an impressive 40-14 mark and a 23-7 league mark.  ULL has been a terror at the plate for its opponents, hitting 71 total home runs, while the Cajun pitching staff has allowed its opponents just 25.  Jonathan Lucroy leads the club in nearly every offensive category, including batting average (.373), hits (87) and RBIs (59), while ranking right behind Jefferie Tatford in home runs with 15.

Lucroy, along with Tatford, Buddy Glass, Hunter Moody, Danny Farquhar and Scott Hawkins were also named to the all-Sun Belt teams prior to the tournament on Tuesday evening. 

Farquhar is expected to get the start for the Cajuns.  He is 6-3 on the season and holds a team-best 2.85 ERA.  USA is expected to match ULL with Doan (5-6, 5.16 ERA).  Doan has been playing his best ball of the season as of late, throwing back-to-back compete games for USA in his last two outings.

This will be the ninth meeting in Sun Belt Tournament history between the Jaguars and the Cajuns with USA holding a 6-2 edge.  ULL did sweep the season series this year versus the Jags, taking all three meetings back in early March in Lafayette.