BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Postseason baseball is finally here for the Southern Jaguars.

They head to the SWAC tournament as the third seed.

The Jags plan to back up their championship pedigree of 34 SWAC titles, which would be the most in the conference. The intention is to add that to history in Atlanta this weekend.

“Everybody knows when Southern gets into that tournament it’s going to be about a battle when you’re playing us. So we’ve got a lot of respect in the tournament,” Jaylen Armstrong said.

“I think everybody wants to beat Southern. They’re tired of seeing us win, and so yeah we’ve got a big target on our back,” Pitcher Nick Wilson said.

“I’m trying to turn this into a monster where if you come here, you get a chance to play for a chance or win a championship before you leave,” Head Coach Chris Crenshaw said. “And this is for a JUCO, transfer, or a high school here.”

Plenty of players in this team remember the joys of winning the championship in 2021, but also the disappointment of falling in 14 innings during the title game in 2022. That has certainly been a motivating factor for the past 365 days.

“This group should have a sour taste in their mouth from last year. I don’t like talking about last year, it’s still a sore spot for me, but for us to be back in the hunt for the championship they should be hungry for it,” Crenshaw said.

“We have a shirt that we have had since the fall that says unfinished on the back. That’s just been the motivation for this team this year to finish the job,” Wilson said.

“We came into the fall talking about 14 this, 14 is that, just having 14, just seeing it every day. So it’s in the back of our heads for sure. Like we got to get the job done this year,” Armstrong said.