JACKSON, Miss. – The Millsaps baseball team closed the 2011 regular season today with a 14-12 win over Southwestern University.

With the win, the Majors (24-16, 11-9 SCAC) secured the second seed for next week's SCAC Tournament at USA Stadium in Millington, Tenn.

Both teams had little trouble producing runs today, as there were only three innings with no runs scored. Southwestern (17-20, 8-12 SCAC) jumped out first with two runs in the top of the first off a pair of singles to center.

The Majors did not waste any time responding, hanging three runs of their own in the home-half of the inning to take the early 3-2 lead. Southwestern's Matt Stuart hit both Jeremy Aliff and Jules Roussel to begin the inning. A double steal put both runners on second and third with no outs for Will Hawkins. The senior All-American crushed the ball over the center field fence for the three-run homerun.

Elliot Varney got the Pirates in order after allowing a leadoff single in the second to keep Southwestern off the board, but the Majors couldn't reach in the bottom half, going one-two-three to keep the game at 3-2 going into the third.

Southwestern took their second lead of the game in the top of the third with three hits, including a three-run shot to left by Johnny Gavrel. Varney settled down from there and got the next three Pirates in order to close out his day. Varney went three innings, giving up five runs on seven hits with two strikeouts.

Varney remained on the hook for the loss until the seventh inning. The Pirates got two more runs in the fourth inning thanks to another homerun to left, this time off the bat of Chris Lowry. Fortunately for the sophomore the Majors offense was not finished for the day.

The Majors came into the bottom of the seventh trailing 7-3. The Pirates' new pitcher, Eric Kegley, loaded the bases to start the inning, hitting Jeremy Aliff and walking Jules Roussel and Will Hawkins. Jake Mills' single to right kept the bases loaded and scored Aliff, 7-4.

Kegley was pulled in favor of Nick Cox. The senior let his first offering get away from him, allowing everyone to advance and Roussel to score, 7-5. Will Hawkins came home on a Josh Ordeneaux double to left, 7-6. Josh Riggins singled past the shortstop to plate the fourth run of the frame, tying the game at seven. Trey Rountree cleaned up the bases with a single to center that scored Riggins and Ordeneaux and the Majors had retaken the lead, 9-7.

Jeff Glasgow came on as the third Pirate pitcher in the inning to retire the side without any more runs scoring. Boomer Hudson came in to pitch the eighth inning. The senior couldn't shut the door, allowing the Pirates to charge back with five runs in the inning. Boomer faced six batters, surrendering four runs off three hits. Andrew Pearce was called in to get the final out of the inning and allowed his one run on the day before getting Nick Ashford to pop out to center to end the inning.

The Majors trailed 12-9 going into the bottom of the eighth, but they managed to get all five runs back before the Pirates could staunch the bleeding. Will Hawkins got his second homerun of the day, this time a two-run shot to left. Then Trey Rountree got in on the fun with a three-run shot to right to plate the final runs of the game, 14-12.

Jason Riggins came on in the save opportunity in the top of the ninth and struck out the side in order to seal the win, and the second seed, for the Majors.

Andrew Pearce got the win after closing out the eighth inning and Riggins picked up his third save of the season. With the second seed in the western division, Millsaps will now get ready to take on the DePauw University Tigers, the second seed out of the east, in the second game of the opening round of the 2011 SCAC Baseball Tournament, hosted by Rhodes College. Game time is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 21 at USA Stadium in Millington, Tennessee.

Full brackets and tournament information is available at this link. The Voice of the Majors, James Hill, will be on hand for all of the Majors' games in Millington. Check the tournament homepage for details and schedules.