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NORFOLK, Va. - For the second straight year and the fifth time in school history, Norfolk State University will be the host site for the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Baseball Championship. The 2013 tournament runs Wednesday, May 15 through Sunday, May 19. All games will be played on campus at Marty L. Miller Baseball Field.

The Spartans (18-27, 12-12 MEAC North) will be the No. 2 seed from the MEAC's Northern Division in the eight-team, double-elimination tournament. NSU opens play with North Carolina Central, the MEAC South No. 3 seed, at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Delaware State is the top seed in the MEAC North, followed by NSU, Coppin State and UMES. Savannah State is the top seed in the South, followed by Bethune-Cookman, NCCU and North Carolina A&T. Only Florida A&M, the fifth-place team from the South, did not qualify for the tournament.

Admission is $7 per day for adults and $25 for a tournament pass covering all five days. Children 10 and under get in free.

The Spartans are seeking their first-ever MEAC Baseball Championship. They advanced to the final round of the tournament, only to finish as runner-up, in 1998, 2001, 2005, 2008 and 2011. The last three of those trips came under current head coach Claudell Clark, and in all three instances, the Spartans had to advance through the losers' bracket to get to the final round. The Spartans are 31-30 all-time in their 15 MEAC Tournament appearances and have won at least one game 13 of those years.

NSU vs. The Field
The Spartans are quite familiar with their opposition this week.
• NSU opens tournament play against N.C. Central this Wednesday. The teams met earlier in the year in a non-conference mid-week game in Durham, N.C., with the Eagles winning 6-1 on March 7. NSU is 10-2, however, against the Eagles all-time.
• NSU also participated in the 2013 Tiger Invitational hosted by Savannah State on March 2-3. NSU went 0-2 against the Tigers, losing 5-1 on March 2 and 16-6 on March 3.
• NSU went 12-12 against its Northern Division counterparts, including handing division champ Delaware State its only three conference losses this year.
• The Spartans have not, however, played Bethune-Cookman or North Carolina A&T this season.

This and That
• Killian Strenn (16) and Justin Lee (14) both enter the MEAC Tournament on double-digit hitting streaks. Strenn's dates back to March 30 against Coppin State, and Lee's to the April 13 doubleheader with UMES.
• Seventeen different Spartans have started at least one game in the field or at designated hitter this season. Left fielder Tyon Ore is the only Spartan to start all 45 games, while Zach Markel (44), Cameron Day (44) and Justin Lee (42) are the only others who have started more than 40 times.
• SS Justin Lee is the son of NSU assistant coach Wiley Lee. Lee was the long-time head coach at local power Great Bridge High School, the same program which produced current Major League all-star Justin Upton. Lee was a first-team all-state player at Great Bridge after leading the Wildcats to the 2011 state Group AAA title. His father joined NSU as an assistant coach midway through the 2012 season, his son's freshman year.