Two ties had plenty to do with the assignment of seeds in the upcoming ODAC Baseball Tournament, one of which dealt with determining the top seed in the six-team tournament field.

Shenandoah University, ranked #1 in NCAA Division III by D3baseball.com/NCBWA and Collegiate Baseball, enters the tournament as the top seed via tiebreakers over second-seeded Washington and Lee University. The conference’s second step, which awards points to each victory in league play, was used to sift thru the stalemate.

Randolph-Macon College owns the third seed outright and caps three teams that will occupy the third base dugout as home teams on the first day of the ODAC Tournament in City Stadium on Friday. The Yellow Jackets are rated 14th and 18th in the two previously mentioned polls.

Virginia Wesleyan College and Hampden-Sydney College also earned their places free of tiebreakers. The Marlins are seeded fourth and will meet R-MC in the first round, while the Tigers take ownership of the fifth seed and will square off with W&L in their first tournament outing.

The final spot again went to tiebreakers to set. Roanoke College and Guilford College finished the regular season locked with 9-11 league marks. The second step in the tiebreaking procedure again separated the two tied squads, awarding the sixth seed to Roanoke and a date with #1 Shenandoah in the tourney’s opening game.

Roanoke earns the sixth seed after just missing out on the sixth seed last year, as the top six make the ODAC tournament. The Maroons finished the season with a school record 25 wins and 15 losses.

Roanoke College left-hander John Ruhlman has been named the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Pitcher of the Week. Ruhlman, a senior from Virginia Beach, Va., picked up a pair of big ODAC wins last week to help Roanoke secure their spot in the ODAC Tournament.

Ruhlman started and worked the first five innings in a 3-0 win at Emory & Henry. He allowed just two hits with a walk while fanning three before leaving the game.

Ruhlman took to the hill a second time in a 5-3 victory over Randolph-Macon Saturday. He worked eight solid innings, giving up two runs on seven hits. He walked three and struck out five. For the season, Ruhlman is 3-5 with a 4.24 earned run average in 76.1 innings of work.

Play in the ODAC Baseball Tournament begins on Friday, May 5, and continues thru Sunday, May 7. All games will be played at City Stadium in Lynchburg. The tournament openers were moved back a day due to a forecast of bad weather for Thursday.

 2017 ODAC Baseball Tournament Schedule
Friday, May 5
GAME 1: #1 Shenandoah vs. #6 Roanoke – 11:00am
GAME 2: #2 Washington and Lee vs. #5 Hampden-Sydney – 2:30pm
GAME 3: #3 Randolph-Macon vs. #4 Virginia Wesleyan – 6:00pm

Saturday, May 6
GAME 4: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2 – 11:00am
GAME 5: Winner Game 1 vs. Loser Game 3 – 2:30pm
GAME 6: Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3 – 6:00pm

Match-ups to be determined by number of teams remaining for games 7-11.

Sunday, May 7
GAME 7 – 11:00am
GAME 8 – 2:30pm
GAME 9 – 6:00pm

Monday, May 8
GAME 10 – 1:00pm

if necessary
GAME 11 – following Game 10 or at 3:30pm