MONTGOMERY, Alabama – Two weeks after finding out they will host an NAIA National Championship Opening Round, the Belhaven baseball team is preparing for the Southern States Athletic Conference tournament. The tournament features the top eight teams in the conference, and Belhaven is set to play in the event's first game on Wednesday at 10:00 AM.

In the first year the tournament will be held in Montgomery, the 2014 SSAC Tournament is slated to be one for the ages. It features the defending NAIA national champion, four teams ranked in the NAIA Top 25 Coaches' Poll, teams from four states, and just three games separating the fourth seed from the eighth seed.

"We are playing for seeding purposes in the national tournament, so we are trying to win every game possible," Head Coach Hill Denson said. "In this conference, anyone can beat anyone, so we will put our best foot forward and see how things shake out."

As the tournament's four seed, Belhaven (38-17, 17-13 SSAC) will take on Western Division rival William Carey University (31-24, 17-13 SSAC), who landed just one seeding spot below the Blazers. The two met in the first conference series of the year in February, and Belhaven took two of three from the Crusaders in an emotional series that featured three one-run games.

The top-seeded Faulkner Eagles (42-12, 22-8 SSAC) will play Auburn University-Montgomery (27-23, 14-16), who received the final spot after winning the series against the Blazers last weekend. The winner of that game will play the victor of the Belhaven-William Carey matchup on Thursday at 7:00 pm.

The other side of the bracket features the tournament's #2 seed Brewton-Parker College (30-9, 19-7 SSAC) facing the 7^th-seeded University of Mobile (30-21, 16-14 SSAC) on Wednesday at 4:00. The winner's bracket will get to see either 3^rd-seed Southern Polytechnic State University (38-16, 20-9 SSAC) or first year SSAC member Martin Methodist College (26-18, 17-13 SSAC).

All games of the Southern States Athletic Conference tournament will take place at Paterson Field in Montgomery, Alabama, with the Championship scheduled for Saturday afternoon. The complete bracket is available here.