St. Ambrose Earns Top Seed In Baseball Tournament
JOLIET, Ill. --- St. Ambrose University edged out Olivet Nazarene University by one game for the 2026 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular-season baseball title. Now, can the Fighting Bees do the same against ONU as well as four other teams when the league tournament opens up on Wednesday afternoon at Slammers Stadium? The winner of the tournament gains the coveted bid to the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round.
St. Ambrose (29-19) earned a 24-8 mark in league play, which granted them the crown, but their losses came against four of the other five clubs in the tournament. The only exception was No. 6 seed Indiana University South Bend (21-29).
SAU and Olivet Nazarene (28-20) gain first-round byes in the tournament by virtue of their top two spots in the seeding. Besides Indiana South Bend, the other three teams in the field are No. 3 seed Saint Xavier University (31-17), No. 4 Judson University (31-19) and No. 5 University of St. Francis (20-27).
St. Francis and Judson will start the four-day tournament on Wednesday at 3 pm followed by the Indiana South Bend-Saint Xavier matchup at 6 pm.
Wednesday's first-game winner gains the right to face St. Ambrose in the opening game on Thursday at 10 am. That will be followed by Olivet Nazarene meeting the winner of the Saint Xavier-Indiana South Bend contest at 1 pm. Elimination games follow at 4 and 7 pm.
The double-elimination tournament runs through Saturday when a champion is crowned. That winner earns the conference's automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship Opening Round May 11-14.
For the complete tournament bracket, go to Bracket.
The complete schedule follows:
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Game #1: No. 5 Seed St. Francis (20-27) vs. No. 4 Seed Judson (31-19) --- 3 pm
Game #2: No. 6 Seed Indiana South Bend (21-29) vs. No. 3 Seed Saint Xavier (31-17) --- 6 pm
Thursday, April 30, 2026
Game #3: Winner-Game #1 vs. No. 1 seed St. Ambrose (29-19) --- 10 am
Game #4: Winner-Game #2 vs. No. 2 seed Olivet Nazarene (28-20) --- 1 pm
Game #5: Loser-Game #2 vs. Loser-Game #3 --- 4 pm
Game #6: Loser-Game #1 vs. Loser-Game #4 --- 7 pm
Friday, May 1, 2026
Game #7: Winner-Game #3 vs. Winner-Game #4 --- 1 pm
Game #8: Winner-Game #5 vs. Winner-Game #6 --- 4 pm
Game #9: Loser-Game #7 vs. Winner-Game #8 --- 7 pm
Saturday, May 2, 2026
Game #10: Winner-Game #7 vs. Winner-Game #9 --- 4 pm (Championship)
Game #11: Winner-Game #10 vs. Loser-Game #10 --- 7 pm (If necessary)