OVC switches baseball tournament venue to Choccolocco Park

For at least the next two years the Ohio Valley Conference baseball tournament will be held at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama.

The conference announced the OVC Board of Directors of Athletics' approval to play the six-team, double-elimination tournament there in 2017 and 2018 on Tuesday evening.

The tournament, which Southeast Missouri State won this season to secure the league's automatic NCAA Regional berth, has been held at the Ballpark in Jackson, Tennessee, for the past seven years.

Last year's OVC softball tournament was moved to Choccolocco Park, and the 2017 tournament will be held there as well. Previously, the regular-season champion hosted.

Southeast, which has made the conference tournament for the last 22 seasons, will have a seven-hour trek to Oxford if they secure a spot.

The ballpark is approximately 30 minutes away from the Jacksonville State campus and the Gamecocks, who finished second in the regular season and lost in the championship to the Redhawks, will play their home games there next season due to stadium renovations.