Feb. 3, 2004

Charleston, SC - The Southern Conference announced Tuesday afternoon that the SoCon Baseball Tournament will be returning to The Citadel's Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park through the 2007 season, as voted on by the athletic directors of the league's 12 member institutions.

"We are very proud that we have been chosen to host such a great event for another three years," Citadel Director of Athletics Les Robinson stated. "This is the way the 12 conference athletic directors can say a job well done to everyone involved with the previous tournaments in Charleston."

"The Citadel Athletic Department, the City of Charleston, the Baseball Committee and the fans do such a great job of providing an outstanding tournament in one of college baseball's most beautiful settings," added Robinson

The SoCon Tournament has had great success since moving to Charleston in 1990. It has become one of the premier and most well attended conferences baseball tournaments in the nation. Over 250,000 fans have attended tournament games in Charleston over the last 14 years. "We commend our administration for their effort and support in making the tournament so successful," stated Citadel baseball coach Fred Jordan. "We also applaud our fans and the City of Charleston for making the SoCon Tournament one of the best in the nation."

For the first seven years the tournament was in Charleston The Citadel's College Park played host, but the tourney moved to newly built Riley Park in 1997 where it has been a fixture for the last seven years.

"Hopefully we can continue to improve upon the last 14 years and establish new attendance records over the next four years," Jordan added.

The 2004 SoCon baseball championships will mark the 15th consecutive year the tournament has been hosted by the Military College of South Carolina. With the awarding of the contract to The Citadel, Charleston will extend its streak of hosting the tournament to 18 straight years, 11 consecutive seasons at Riley Park.

The 2004 Southern Conference Baseball Tournament, which will be at The Citadel's Riley Park, will begin on May 26 and will conclude on May 29.