Heartland Baseball Tournament

Dallas Baptist University overcame a 0-8 deficit to defeat the University of the Incarnate Word 9-8 to win the 2003 Heartland Conference Baseball Championship on May 10 at V.J. Keefe Memorial Stadium on the campus of St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. This is the Patriots’ first full year as a member of the Heartland Conference.

Trailing by eight after five innings, Dallas Baptist got on the board in the bottom of the sixth with a 3-run homerun by Josh Causey. The Patriots added five more runs in the seventh with three runners comming home of three different UIW wild pitches and a 2-run homer by Causey. With the game tied at 8-all in the bottom of the ninth, Causey solidified his position of the man of the day by driving in the game-winning RBI with one out and two men on base. Causey finished with three hits in five at-bats driving a total of six RBIs and scoring two runs.

Dallas Baptist, currently unranked, started the 2003 season ranked 18th in Collegiate Baseball Newspaper‘s preseason poll. The Patriots were the third seed in the Heartland tournament and advanced to the championship but defeating second-seed Incarnate Word 5-4 on Thursday and upseting first-seed St. Mary’s 9-6 on Friday. Incarnate Word bounced back from its inital defeat to Dallas Baptist by eliminating fourth-seeded St. Edward’s 9-1 on Friday and finishing St. Mary’s season 10-6 on Friday.

This is the third year of the Heartland Conference Baseball Championship Tournament. Incarnate Word won the crown in 2001 and St. Mary’s was champions in 2002.