2019 HBCU Baseball World Series Team Historical Review

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Who: North Carolina A&T University Baseball Team, Greensboro, NC,
Southern University Baseball Team, Baton Rouge, LA
What: Inaugural HBCU World Series – NCAA College Baseball Event
When: May 24, 2019
1:00 p.m. (start time subject to change)
Where: Guaranteed Rate Field
333 W. 35th Street
Chicago, IL 60616
Tickets can be purchased at BCSG 360 HWS Game Ticket 2019

North Carolina A&T University 

NC A&T Head Coach Ben Hall (4th season)

2019 Record: 29-24

National Ranking: No. 2 HBCU Baseball Top 10 Large School Poll

The North Carolina A&T Aggies baseball team represents the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in NCAA Division I college baseball. They compete in the Southern Division of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC). The Aggies play their home games at War Memorial Stadium in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The Aggie baseball program plays all home contests in War Memorial Stadium. The stadium, which was built in 1926, has a capacity of 7,500. The stadium has served as the home of various local minor league baseball clubs from the 1930s to 2004.

North Carolina A&T joined the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference as a founding member in 1969. Before that, the Aggies were members of the Division II Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIAA), where they won 14 conference titles, including a Run of five in six years from 1950 to 1955. Since joining the MEAC, NC A&T has claimed 3 conference titles.

Notable North Carolina A&T Aggie players have gone on to play baseball in Major, Minor, and Negro leagues. Of the 18 Aggie baseball players that have been selected in the Major League Baseball draft, Lloyd Lightfoot holds the distinction of being the highest drafted at #214 to the Baltimore Orioles in 1968.

Aggie baseball players that have gone on to play professionally include: Negro League players Edward Martin, James Robinson and Hubert “Burt” Simmons and Major league players Tom Alston and Al Holland. Other notable former Aggie baseball players include: Hugh Evans who later became a National Basketball Association (NBA) referee and Artis Stanfield, the first African-American to win the NCAA batting championship.

NCAA Tournament Appearances:
2005, 2018

Conference Tournament Champions:
2005, 2018

Conference Champions:
MEAC: 1974, 1993, 2005, 2018
CIAA: 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1968, 1969, 1970

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Southern University 

Head Coach Kerrick Jackson (2nd season)

2019 Record: 32-22

National Ranking: No. 1 HBCU Baseball Top 10 Large School Poll

The Southern Jaguars baseball team is a varsity intercollegiate athletic team of Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. The team is a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, which is part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Division I. The team plays its home games at Lee–Hines Field in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The Jaguars have the most national and SWAC titles of any SWAC school. They are also tied with Alabama State for the most black national titles of any SWAC school. Though Southern was forced to discontinue its baseball program during the uncertain times of the Great Depression and World War II years (specifically from 1932 to 1947), its program was largely stable in the subsequent post-war decades.

In 1959, Southern, led by future National Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Brock, became the first historically black college or university (HBCU) to win the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national championship. In 1987 Southern became the first HBCU to win a game in the NCAA Tournament by defeating #2-ranked Cal State Fullerton. In 2003 and 2005, Southern won blackcollegebaseball.com black national championships.

Head coaches:
Robert Henry (Bob Lee), a graduate of LeMoyne College, served as head coach between 1949 and 1962, before moving on to become coach of the football team. He compiled a 207–51 record (.802) overall record as baseball coach. In addition to coaching Brock and the 1959 team to an NAIA national title, he also led the Jaguars to the 1960 NAIA World Series and 2 official and 4 unofficial SWAC titles (for the 1949, 1950, 1955, and 1956 seasons). The Jaguars’ baseball stadium is named in part for him.

The Jaguars were most recently led by head coach and Southern alumnus Roger Cador. He completed his coaching career, which spanned from 1985 to 2017, with a 913–597–1 (.605) record, 14 SWAC titles, 8 NCAA tournament appearances, 3 NCAA tournament play-in appearances, and 2 black national titles. He also holds the distinction of having coached the first HBCU player to win a Baseball America College Player of the Year Award, Collegiate Baseball Player of the Year award, Dick Howser Trophy and Golden Spikes Award in Rickie Weeks Jr., in 2003.

Southern announced the hiring of Kerrick Jackson as coach in July, 2017. He attended St. Louis Community College–Meramec and then Bethune–Cookman, but later transferred to Nebraska. He led Southern to a 9–33 (.214) record in his first season. In 2019, SWAC Champions and a 32-22 overall record returning to the NCAA Regionals.

Southern has had 95 Major League Baseball Draft selections since the draft began in 1965.

NCAA Tournament Appearances:
1987, 1988, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2019

National Tournament Champions:
NAIA national championship (1959) and 2 blackcollegebaseball.com black national championships (2003, 2005)

NAIA College World Series Appearances:
1959, 1960, 1965, 1966

Conference Champions:
26 official (1959, 1960, 1965, 1966, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1981, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2009) and 4 unofficial (1949, 1950, 1955, 1956[8]) SWAC championships