Birmingham-Southern College is the greatest Cinderella story in not just college baseball but all of sports right now. The Panthers are going to play for a national championship even though their school literally will cease to exist on the very same day that they begin their conquest.
It is a story that not even Hollywood could write!
Birmingham-Southern is a private liberal arts college in Alabama that is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1856 on 192 wooded acres that are located three miles west of downtown Birmingham. 45 academic, residential, administrative, and athletics buildings make up the campus.
All of them will be shuttered for good at 12:00:00 a.m. on June 1, 2024.
The school suffered from grave financial troubles over the last few decades due to both errors in accounting and dwindling enrollment. Administrators explored every option to keep the school open, and even sought assistance from state legislature.
It just wasn’t enough.
The Board of Trustees recently voted to close the college at the end of the spring semester. Birmingham-Southern will shut down on a permanent basis in less than a week.
On that very same day, the Panthers will play their first game of a double elimination bracket at the Division-III College Baseball World Series at Classic Auto Group Park in Eastlake, Ohio. They are one of just eight teams whose season is still alive after winning a Super Regional on the road on Saturday.
And the circumstances of their final game were crazy! Nine players were dealing with serious food poisoning.
Birmingham-Southern College keeps winning!
Birmingham-Southern baseball won 26 games in the Southern Athletic Conference to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament. They were placed in the Lexington, Ky. Regional as the No. 3 seed and won three-straight games to earn a Super Regional bid.
The Panthers traveled to Granville, Ohio to face Denison University, one of the nation’s top eight seeds.
Friday ace Drake LaRoche threw 127 pitches in a complete-game blowout on Friday. Birmingham-Southern took Game 1 of the best-of-three series with a dominant 10-1 win.
Saturday’s score was much closer but the result was the same. The Panthers won Game 3 by a score of 7-6 and clinched a bid to the World Series!
The on-air call was tremendous.
“The doors may be closing but the final chapter has not been written! Birmingham Southern will play in the D3 College World Series!”
Take a listen:
Birmingham-Southern College will play their first game of the World Series on May 31st, the same day that the school closes forever. The Panthers will be playing for a school that doesn’t exist!