Ann Arbor, Mich. – After missing postseason play from 2015 to 2022, Aquinas made its emphatic return to postseason play last season in the WHAC tournament as the No. 4-seed. The Saints have returned to the conference tournament this season as the No. 6-seed.

Aquinas (26-24 overall) will take on one of its fiercest rivals in Indiana Tech to open up the tournament. The Saints went 1-3 against the Warriors (27-22 overall) during the regular season and will be looking for redemption in the opening round.

The WHAC tournament will consist of two separate pods that are hosted by the top two teams in the conference. Four teams will compete in each pod with Aquinas playing in Concordia's pod. The two four-team brackets will be a double-elimination tournament played over three days (May 1-3). The winners of the two pods will then play a best-of-three-game championship series next week (May 6-7) to determine the tournament championship and which team earns a bid to nationals.

AQ's path to its first conference tournament championship since 2005 is as follows:

Game 1 – Wednesday, May 1st vs. No. 3-seeded Indiana Tech at the Cardinals Baseball Field, 1:00 p.m.

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The Saints are coming into the tournament hot after rolling past Rochester this past weekend. AQ scored 60 runs against RCU and have scored 175 runs over the last 18 games, averaging 9.7 runs per game during that span.

Indiana Tech has been just as hot with slightly more hits than Aquinas and a higher team batting average. The Warriors will take a six-game win streak into the game against AQ after sweeping Cornerstone to conclude the season.

Aquinas will likely be facing IIT's ace, Grant Besser, tomorrow. Besser held AQ to just two hits over four innings when they met earlier this season. He holds a 3.45 ERA this season with 88 punchouts. The Saints will look to make an offensive splash early to get the bats going.

The loser of the opening game will not face elimination, but the road to winning the pod will become substantially harder.

Game 2 – Date and Time to be Determined

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The Saints will already know who they will face prior to their game against Indiana Tech. The winner of the Aquinas and Indiana Tech game will face off against the winner of the No. 2-seed Concordia vs. No. 7-seed Siena Heights game on Thursday (May 2) at 1:00 p.m. Alternatively, the losers of the two opening games will face off tomorrow (May 1) at 4:00 p.m. with their respective tournament lives on the line.

The winner of the AQ/IIT game will likely face off against Concordia, who are heavy favorites to advance past Siena Heights. Aquinas played strongly into the Cardinals earlier this season. While AQ only won one of four games against the No. 2 seed, the three losses were all decided by less than four runs. CUAA finished the season 24-7 in conference play with the Saints being one of the only teams to get the best of the pod hosts.

The other opponent that AQ could potentially face would be Siena Heights. Given this scenario, Aquinas would be looking for some redemption against SHU after falling in both games to Siena Heights. SHU is outscoring AQ by three runs in both of the games this season.

Day 2 (Pending Advancement) – Thursday, May 2nd vs. TBD at the Cardinals Baseball Field, 1:00 p.m. & 4:00 p.m.

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The Saints will need to win one game on Wednesday to advance to Thursday. Whichever team loses the opening game and then also falls in the consolation bracket will be eliminated from the competition.
Here is what day two could look like:

(A) Aquinas comes out ahead of Indiana Tech on Wednesday and then faces the winner of the CUAA and SHU game at 1:00 p.m. If AQ were to then win this game, they would advance to the championship game on Friday (May 3) at 1:00 p.m.

(B) Aquinas beats Indiana Tech but then falls to the winner of CUAA/SHU at 1:00 p.m. In this scenario, AQ would then play again for its tournament life at 4:00 p.m. against the winner of the first consolation game on Wednesday.

(C) Aquinas falls to Indiana Tech on Wednesday but then wins the opening consolation round. In this event, AQ would play the loser of the second round of the "winner's" bracket for a chance at the championship game for this pod at 4:00 p.m.

Day 3 (Pending Advancement) – Friday, May 3rd vs. TBD at the Cardinals Baseball Field, 1:00 p.m. & 4:00 p.m.

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The Saints will need to advance to the championship game for this pod to play on Friday. Here are the scenarios for the championship game:

(A) The Saints win their games on Wednesday and Thursday without taking a loss. In this instance, AQ would play the winner of the consolation bracket. Should Aquinas win the game at 1:00 p.m., it would advance to the championship series on May 6-7 against the winner of the UNOH pod. If Aquinas loses the first game, the Saints would then also fall into the consolation bracket, and the winner of the second game advances to the championship series.

(B) The Saints lose a game on either Wednesday or Thursday, but advance through the consolation bracket to the championship game. This scenario would require Aquinas to win back-to-back games against their opponent to secure a spot in the championship series.

Championship Series (Pending Advancement) – May 6-7 at Highest Seed Remaining

The winner of each pod will clash for the WHAC Tournament Championship. If No. 1 UNOH (34-13) wins the other pod against No. 4-seeded Lawrence Tech (29-18), No. 5-seeded Madonna (22-24), and No. 8-seeded Cornerstone (19-30), then the winner of the Concordia pod will receive an automatic bid to nationals.

UNOH has already received one of the two automatic bids to nationals by winning the WHAC regular season title.

If UNOH does not reach the Championship Series, the winner of the series will then advance to nationals with the second automatic bid.