ST. PAUL, Minn. - After a flurry of location and time changes and weather predicting, the 2014 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Baseball Tournament is set to kick off on Friday, May 9 as four teams battle for one trophy and a berth into the NCAA Division III Tournament. The league's postseason tournament will be played at two sites in suburban St. Paul after originally being scheduled at Wade Stadium in Duluth, Minn. as that ballpark has been deemed to not currently be playble.

UMAC Baseball Tournament website

What used to be a potentially seven-game bracket will now start on Friday, a day later than originally planned. Friday's games will be played at two sites, Bethel University in Arden Hills and Concordia University-St. Paul. Saturday's action, and Sunday's if-necessary championship game, will all be played at Bethel's Hargis Park.

The revised tournament schedule is now as follows:

Game 1 (Friday, 11 a.m.) - #1 College of St. Scholstica vs. #4 Bethany Lutheran College (Bethel University, Arden Hills, Minn.)
Game 2 (Friday, 11 a.m.) - #2 Northland College vs. #3 University of Northwestern (Concordia-St. Paul)
Game 3 (Friday, 3 p.m.) - Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2 (Concordia-St. Paul)
Game 4 (Friday, 3 p.m.) – Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2 (Bethel University)
Game 5 (Saturday, 12 p.m.) – Winner of Game 3 vs. Loser of Game 4 (Bethel University)
Game 6 (Saturday, 3 p.m.) – Winner of Game 5 vs. Winner of Game 4
Game 7 (Sunday, 12 p.m.) – If-necessary championship game (same two teams as Game 6) (Bethel University)

As the winner of the last 16 UMAC Tournaments and the league's regular season champion for the 18th straight year, the College of St. Scholastica enters this weekend as the favorite. Not only are the Saints the tournament's top seed, but St. Scholastica is the only UMAC team to have beaten every conference opponent this year amidst a 19-1 league record. Riding a current 17-game winning streak, CSS is hitting .320 as a team while boasting a 2.80 earned run average. Freshman and current UMAC Baseball Player of the Week award winner Tyler Duex has hit .465 in 30 games with 19 of his 47 hits going for extra bases. Austin Colvard is another Saint to watch as the sophomore boasts a .350 batting average and has successfully stolen all 24 bases that he has attempted. Andy Davis has been phenomenal on the mound, maintaining a 1.93 ERA in 10 starts that have spanned nearly 61 innings. Thomas Rogers has had quite an impact in relief, allowing just two earned runs in his 21 and two-thirds innings of work this year.

With a roster of 14 players, Northland College has turned some heads in 2014 as the LumberJacks have gone 15-6 in their 21 league games. The Jacks started out hot with a 10 straight wins to begin their UMAC slate in late March and early April. Dan Kollauf is one of two players to amass 50 hits throughout the course of the season, adding 20 extra-base hits and a team-best 45 runs batted in to go with a .602 slugging rate. Mitch Howard is the other LumberJack to reach the 50-hit plateau to add to his .360 batting average. Nine of those 14 jerseys have seen at least 13 innings of work on the hill this year, combining for a 5.74 team ERA. Over the course of 65 and one-third innings, Colin Moberly has held opposing hitters to a .208 average while keeping his own ERA low at 2.20 with a 7-2 record on the mound. Kyle Strom has logged over 70 innings on the rubber and has a 3.44 ERA this season.

Northwestern was the first squad to have its seeding determined in this four-team playoff with the Eagles knowing they would be the visiting team on the scoreboard in the tournament's first game. UNW has rode several waves of wins and losses throughout its 2014 campaign that saw the Purple and Gold go 14-7 in league play and although Dave Hieb's club comes into the UMAC Tournament with two consecutive losses, the Eagles swept their final league series against Martin Luther College last weekend. Northwestern leads the league in doubles and home runs, with transfer Tyler Osborn helping significantly in that category. Osborn, the Eagles' everyday right fielder, enters the tournament on a 14-game hitting streak, the longest of any UNW player. He has the fourth-best slugging rate among UMAC players (.570) and has tallied 11 extra-base hits in league play. Senior pitcher Andy Peterson ranks among the UMAC's top 10 in strikeouts per game (9.66) while leading the league in ERA throughout conference contests (0.81).

Bethany Lutheran earned entry into the UMAC finale on the last possible day, winning all three games of a tripleheader over Martin Luther in New Ulm, Minn. to grab the fourth and final playoff spot. The Vikings started off at a surprisingly slow pace, but have steadily worked their way back into contention with 11 victories in 12 games. Lucas Herd leads BLC with a .404 average in the batter's box, having started a team-best 32 contests this year. Vikings head coach Ryan Kragh likes to be active with both Herd and Blake Kersich on the base paths as evidenced by their 28-for-34 combined stolen base success. Kersich has also been solid with a bat in his hands, batting .374 with one of his team's three home runs while being patient, walking 21 times in 2014. Kragh is still working on his team's pitching, but Cory Ferm is coming around with a 3.40 ERA, as is the rest of the Vikings staff.

The UMAC Tournament winner will receive an automatic invitation into next week's NCAA regional playoffs, which are scheduled to begin on Wednesday, May 14.