The Southwestern Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament started Thursday in Jackson, perhaps without the best team in the conference participating. SWAC commissioner Rudy Washington announced Monday that Alcorn, the Eastern division leader, who finished 18-11 and 13-5 in the conference, would not be allowed to participate in the tournament because they did not play enough league games.

Apparently, there has been a rule that requires SWAC teams to play 80 percent of its scheduled league games (26 of 32) to qualify for the tournament. That rule has not been enforced until this year.

Rain forced the postponement of four of Alcorn State’s weekend series.

Alcorn head baseball coach Willie &uot;Rat’ McGowan said the ruling was an embarrassment.

I agree. Not because it was just now enforced, but because Washington was very vague on the fact the rule would be enforced until only three weeks remained in the season.

I saw first-hand how baseball in the SWAC is treated as a lower-level sport when the tournament was held at Liberty Park.

Teams were forced to play games when it was inconvenient and the tournament was held three weeks before the NCAA Tournament.

Apparently that still seems to be the case.

McGowan has every right to be angry . Some coaches blame the Alcorn coach for not trying hard enough to schedule games, but that doesn’t make sense when the teams you were rained out against have nowhere near the talent of the Braves.

But what’s done is done and hopefully the incident won’t happen again.

Jackson State head baseball coach Bob Braddy probably summed it up best.

&uot;There’s proably enough blame to go around for every one of us,&uot; Braddy said by phone Wednesday. &uot;We should have all made a better effort of getting rained out games in earlier in the season. It’s really not fair for the Alcorn players. You want the championship to be decided on the field. They got caught up in something really unfortunate. Some coaches put forth the effort to make up games and some didn’t. I hate to see the players penalized for it.&uot;

Who knows how Alcorn would have done? They were playing their best ball at the end of the season. Now Jackson State is probably the only team in the way of Southern winning their fourth straight conference tournament.

&uot;You have to beat Southern to win the tournament,&uot; Braddy said. &uot;At tournament time the play at another level.&uot;

Braddy considers his team a longshot.

&uot;This is the first year we didn’t have a solid pitcher,&uot; he said. &uot;And our defense has let us down. The key for us is to stay out of the loser’s bracket.&uot;

Braddy, who is married to the former Diane West of Natchez, was interim athletic director at Jackson State before a new AD was named.

&uot;You learn on the playing field that things don’t always go your way,&uot; Braddy said of not being named permanent AD. &uot;But I’m a team player. The new administration wanted a new direction. But he was very up front with me and told me he still wanted me in administration, which is something he didn’t have to do. I’m just going to do everything I can to help Jackson State on the baseball field.&uot;

Joey Martin is sports editor of The Democrat. He can be reached by calling 446-5172 ext. 232 or at joey.martin@natchezdemocrat.com.