1981 Mid-American Conference Baseball Tournament

The 1981 Mid-American Conference Baseball Tournament took place from May 16 to 18 of that year. The top four regular season finishers of the league's ten teams met in the double-elimination tournament held at Bill Theunissen Stadium in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. This was the first time the Mid-American Conference held a postseason tournament to determine a champion. Fourth seeded Eastern Michigan won the first tournament to earn the conference's automatic bid to the 1981 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament.[2][3]

1981 Mid-American Conference
Baseball Tournament

Teams	4
Format	Double-elimination
Finals site	Bill Theunissen Stadium (1948) Mount Pleasant, MI
Champions	Eastern Michigan (1st title)
Winning coach	Ron Oestrike (1st title)
MVP	,

1981 Mid-American Conference baseball standings
	Conf									Overall
Team	W		L		T		PCT			W		L		T		PCT
Central Michigan  ‍†‍‍	13	–	3	–	0		.813			37	–	13	–	0		.740
Western Michigan  ‍‍‍	14	–	3	–	1		.806			32	–	21	–	1		.602
Miami  ‍‍‍	12	–	5	–	1		.694			22	–	27	–	1		.450
Eastern Michigan  ‍‍‡‍^y	9	–	7	–	0		.563			37	–	29	–	0		.561
Toledo  ‍‍‍	8	–	9	–	0		.471			30	–	20	–	0		.600
Northern Illinois  ‍‍‍	6	–	10	–	2		.389			19	–	26	–	2		.426
Kent State  ‍‍‍	5	–	8	–	0		.385			13	–	18	–	1		.422
Bowling Green  ‍‍‍	5	–	8	–	0		.385			13	–	18	–	1		.422
Ohio  ‍‍‍	5	–	13	–	0		.278			12	–	34	–	0		.261
Ball State  ‍‍‍	4	–	12	–	0		.250			18	–	22	–	0		.450
† – Conference champion ‡ – Tournament champion y – Invited to the NCAA Tournament As of June 30, 1981[1]; Rankings from Collegiate Baseball

Seeding and format

The top four finishers were seeded one through four based on conference winning percentage only. The teams played a double-elimination tournament.

Team	W	L	Tie	PCT	GB	Seed
Central Michigan	13	3	0	.813	–	1
Western Michigan	14	3	1	.806	.5	2
Miami	12	5	1	.694	2	3
Eastern Michigan	9	7	0	.563	4	4
Toledo	8	9	0	.471	5.5	–
Northern Illinois	6	10	2	.389	8	–
Kent State	5	8	0	.385	6.5	–
Bowling Green	5	11	0	.313	8	–
Ohio	5	13	0	.278	9	–
Ball State	4	12	0	.250	9	–

Results

	First round					Semifinals					Finals
	1	Central Michigan	0
	4	Eastern Michigan	7
						4	Eastern Michigan	5
						3	Miami	2
	2	Western Michigan	0
	3	Miami	8
											4	Eastern Michigan	5	—
										1	Central Michigan	4	—
	1	Central Michigan	4
	2	Western Michigan	2
						3	Miami	1
						1	Central Michigan	4

References

1. "All-time Standings" (PDF). Mid-American Conference. Retrieved May 6, 2013.
2. "Mid-American Conference Tournament History" (PDF). Mid-American Conference. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 9, 2014. Retrieved May 6, 2013.
3. 2012 Miami RedHawks Baseball Media Guide (PDF). muredhawks.com. pp. 10–17. Retrieved May 8, 2013.