The 1998 Atlantic 10 Conference Baseball Championship was held at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 12. It was scheduled to be a double-elimination tournament held at Bear Stadium in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, where it had been held from 1987 to 1997. Rain, however, forced the league to move it to the Phillies' Veterans Stadium and change it to a one-day, single-elimination tournament. It featured the top two regular-season finishers of each of the conference's six-team divisions. East Division second seed Fordham defeated Virginia Tech in the title game to win the tournament for the first time, earning the Atlantic 10's automatic bid to the 1998 NCAA tournament.

Seeding and format Each division's top teams, based on winning percentage in the 18-game regular season schedule, qualified for the field. In the four-team single-elimination format forced by rain, the East Division champion opened by playing the West Division runner-up, and vice versa.

Team W L Pct. GB Seed Massachusetts 15 3 Fordham 10 8 Rhode Island 8 10 St. Bonaventure 8 10 Temple 7 11 Saint Joseph's 6 12 George Washington 13 2 Virginia Tech 10 5 Duquesne 11 7 Xavier 9 8 Dayton 5 12 La Salle 1 15

Bracket

All-Tournament Team The following players were named to the All-Tournament Team. Fordham third baseman Tom Stein, one of four Rams selected, was named Most Outstanding Player.

The three Virginia Tech players selected, catcher Barry Gauch, pitcher Jon Hand, and second baseman Randy Martin, were all second-time selections. Hand was selected in 1996. Gauch and Martin were both selected in 1997, when Gauch was also named Most Outstanding Player.

Pos. Name Team OF Aaron Braunstein Massachusetts SS Ryan Dacey George Washington 2B Muchie Dagliere Massachusetts C Barry Gauch Virginia Tech P Jon Hand Virginia Tech 2B Randy Martin Virginia Tech P Gary Reznick Fordham OF Dan Rouhier George Washington OF Bob Sprague Fordham 3B Tom Stein Fordham OF Anthony Vega Fordham

Notes

With the tournament being moved to Veterans Stadium this was the first conference baseball tournament to be held in an MLB stadium.

References